NEW ENGLAND CHURCH 
 1853 Hf. CHICAGO * 1903 
 
UNIVERSITY OF H' ^^'ar 
 
 AT CHICAG^,^ 
 
 8Q1 S. MORGAN 
 CHICAGO. IL 60607 
 
'^ 
 
5X 
 
 IZSC 
 
 -^tj, THE ^FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
 . 6 M OF THE FOUNDING 
 
 NEW ENGLAND CHURCH 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 JUNE THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH 
 1903 
 
 "T/iy Way, O God, is in the Sanctuary r 
 
 —Psalm 77 -. 13 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE CHURCH 
 CHICAGO 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 Introduction --------- 5 
 
 List of Speakers on Monday Evening, June 14 - - - 6 
 
 Historical Sketch of the Church ----- 9 
 
 Anniversary Sermon - - - - - - - - 41 
 
 Paper by Rev. Simeon Gilbert, D. D. - - - - 51 
 
 Letter from Rev. Leander T. Chamberlain, D. D. - - 57 
 
 Letter from Rev. Arthur Little, D. D. - - - - 60 
 
 Letter from Rev. James Gibson Johnson, D. D. - - - 65 
 
 Letter from Rev. Horace Leslie Strain - - - 67 
 Appendix A. — Professor Samuel C. Bartlett's Remarks 
 
 on Laying Corner-Stone of Church, February 7, 1867 68 
 Appendix B. — Action of Church on Memorial Stones 
 
 Placed in Front Wall of Church - - - - - 70 
 
 Appendix C. — Action of Church on the Gift by Dea- 
 con William H. Bradley, of the Scrooby Baptismal 
 
 Font, with Historical Sketch of Same - - - 72 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The propriety of commemorating the semi-centennial 
 of the founding of the New England Church had been pri- 
 vately discussed among the members, and at the annual 
 Church meeting, held on February ii, 1903, ''The Church 
 Council was authorized to arrange for the celebration of 
 the Church Jubilee on June thirteenth and fourteenth." 
 On March nth, Rev. Mr. Winchester, the assistant pas- 
 tor, reported "an outline of the scheme proposed for such 
 celebration," which report was accepted, its recommenda- 
 tions adopted, and the Committee was continued. On 
 May 20th, at the monthly business meeting, on the report 
 of the Committee, it was formally 
 
 "Resolved, That the semi-centennial of the founding of 
 the New England Church be observed by special services 
 on Sunday morning and evening, June 13, 1903, and by a 
 public meeting and social gathering on Monday evening, 
 the 14th of June. 
 
 "That the service on Sunday morning be devoted to an 
 Historical Sketch of the Church, to be prepared by Deacon 
 E. W. Blatchford; to be followed by the Communion Ser- 
 vice, led by our pastor. Rev. W. Douglas Mackenzie, 
 D. D., and by our assistant pastor, Rev. Benjamin S. 
 Winchester; on Sunday evening Dr. Mackenzie to deliver 
 an anniversary sermon; and on Monday evening brief 
 addresses, to be followed by a social gathering. 
 
 "That to these services the present and former members 
 of the Church and congregation, and friends of the Church 
 
 5 
 
Introduction 
 
 living in or near Chicago, be invited, so far as their ad- 
 dresses may be obtainable." 
 
 Committees on Invitation, Entertainment, and Finance 
 were appointed. 
 
 The program as thus outlined v^as successfully carried 
 out. The Church had the pleasure of v^^elcoming at these 
 commemoration services many of its former members. 
 On Monday evening Rev. Simeon Gilbert, D. D., present- 
 ed a carefully prepared paper on ' 'The Spirit of the New 
 England Church," after which brief words of greeting 
 were spoken by the following friends. 
 
 Rev. A. N. Hitchcock, Ph. D., District Secretary The 
 American Board. 
 
 Rev. J. Tompkins, D. D., Secretary Illinois Home Mis- 
 sionary Society. 
 
 Rev. W. L. Tenney, D. D., District Secretary American 
 Missionary Association. 
 
 Rev. W. F. McMillen, D. D., District Secretary Con- 
 gregational S. S. and Publishing Society. 
 
 William Spooner, Secretary of Chicago City Missionary 
 Society. 
 
 Rev. John Monro Gibson, D. D., Pastor of St. John's 
 Wood Presbyterian Church, London, England. 
 
 Rev. William A. Bartlett, D. D., Pastor First Congre- 
 gational Church on ''The Church and Evangelism." 
 
 Rev. Adolph A. Eerie, D. D., Pastor Union Park 
 Church. 
 
 Rev. J. H. George, D. D., President of Chicago Theo- 
 logical Seminary. 
 
 The benediction was pronounced by Rev. George S. F. 
 Savage, D. D. 
 
 It was subsequently ordered that there be printed the 
 Historical Sketch, the Anniversary Sermon, and the Paper 
 
Introduction 
 
 by Rev. Simeon Gilbert, D. D., on "The Spirit of the New 
 England Church," presented on Monday evening; and 
 also the letters received from the ex-pastors. Rev. Leander 
 T. Chamberlain, D. D., Rev. Arthur Little, D. D., Rev. 
 James Gibson Johnson, D. D., and Rev. Horace Leslie 
 Strain. 
 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF FIFTY YEARS OF 
 THE NEW ENGLAND CHURCH 
 
 BY E. W. BLATCHFORD 
 
 Presented Sabbath Morning, June 13, 1903 
 
 Fellow-members of the New England Church and 
 Congregation, we meet this morning as a family. As one 
 of its oldest members I yielded to the solicitation of our 
 pastors and many of the brethren to present to you an 
 historical sketch of the half-century life of the Church. 
 
 If I were to select a guiding thought, it would be 
 from Psalm, 48:12-14. 
 
 " Walk about Zion, and go around about her, tell the towers 
 thereof, mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye 
 may tell it to the generation following. For this God is our God 
 forever and ever; He will be our guide even unto death." 
 
 And how may this subject be considered within the 
 limits of the time allotted me ? The closing half of the 
 nineteenth century! The wheels of time have turned 
 swiftly. The map of the world has changed. The charts 
 of Europe, Asia, Africa, the islands of the sea, the whole 
 Western Hemisphere, speak a new meaning. With deeper 
 import come to us the gathered events which have 
 crowded its years in this nation, in the Northwest, in our 
 own city. To these events the Congregational denomi- 
 nation, every church throughout the valley of the Great 
 Lakes and the Mississippi, holds a close relation. In its 
 life and its stately advance this church has borne no 
 unworthy part. 
 
New England Chxjrch 
 
 It is a striking fact that within the limited period of 
 two years— between May 22, 1851 and June 15, 1853— the 
 first three Congregational churches of this city were or- 
 ganized, the First, the Plymouth, and the New England. 
 The question is significant as related to the beginning of 
 Congregationalism in the Northwest and in this city, why 
 eighteen years should have elapsed after the organization 
 of the Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist churches, 
 before one of our own denomination came into being. 
 
 For the answer we must look back to the beginning 
 of the century, when the so-called "Plan of Union" was 
 adopted, a compact originating in the General Assembly, 
 and adopted by the Connecticut Association in May, 1801. 
 Up to this time Congregationalism had grown and thriven 
 within the limits of New England under the "Cambridge 
 Platform," adopted only thirty-eight years after our Puri- 
 tan fathers landed. But now the tide of Western emigra- 
 tion invited to new fields, with new conditions, and it was 
 to meet these new conditions that the "Plan of Union" 
 was devised. It was "an honorable arrangement" — I 
 quote from Walker — "but in its actual workings operated 
 in favor of the Presbyterians. They were nearer the scene 
 of home missionary labor ; their denominational spirit was 
 more assertive than that of Congregationalism of those 
 days; their Presbyteries were rapidly spread over the 
 Missionary districts, and the natural desire for fellowship 
 where the points of separation seemed so few, led Congre- 
 gational ministers to accept the welcome offered therein." 
 Thus an erroneous impression became prevalent, incom- 
 prehensibly favored by New England sentiment, that a 
 more strenuous form of government was safer and better 
 fitted to meet the needs of new and heterogeneous com- 
 munities at the West. The men of that first year of the 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary ii 
 
 nineteenth century seemed unmindful of the struggles 
 endured and victories won by Congregationalism for nigh 
 two hundred years in its New England environment, and, 
 strangely enough, doubted its strength to stand alone when 
 it should cross the Hudson River, and get beyond its con- 
 servative New England guardianship. And what was the 
 result ? I quote, "over two thousand churches which were 
 in origin and usages Congregational, were transformed 
 into Presbyterian churches." It was under this "Plan" 
 that the religious foundations of western New York, of 
 Ohio, of Illinois, and of Michigan, were largely laid, in the 
 larger cities of which its influence was specially recog- 
 nized. Yet it should be stated that through these early 
 years colonies of stalwart, consecrated men, loyal to Con- 
 gregational principles, came westward under missionary 
 influence, who planted in these states the seeds of consistent 
 Christian life and doctrine and sound Christian education. 
 The "Yale Band" came to Central Illinois in 1829, 
 founded Illinois College at Jacksonville, and the Female 
 Seminary at Monticello; in 1831 the ten from Andover; 
 in the same year the "Hampshire Colony" organized at 
 and starting from Northampton, Mass. made their center 
 of light at Princeton, Illinois; and the Band of Ten who, in 
 response to a trumpet call, came to southern Wisconsin 
 eight years before its statehood began; and the "Yale 
 Band" of 1843 '^ Iowa, one of whom — the venerable 
 William Salter, my own and my father's friend — still lin- 
 gers by the Mighty River beholding "What God hath 
 wrought," and peacefully awaits a call to the eternal home 
 above. 
 
 To meet the problems confronting Congregationalism 
 at that day two Conventions were held — the first in Mich- 
 igan City in '46, and the second in '52 at Albany, and 
 
Xew England Church 
 
 placed the sound principles and faithful work of Western 
 brethren in a true light. These gatherings opened the way 
 for the Boston Convention of '65, of which our senior 
 deacon, Colonel Hammond, was first vice-president. 
 The principles underlying Congregational teaching and 
 polity, ''that liberty wherewith Christ hath made us 
 free," the Scriptural rule of Christian fellowship, with 
 the broad manly utterances in the discussions which 
 went out from these Conventions inspired a new impulse 
 of denominational courage and faith throughout the land 
 which bore immediate and enduring fruitage. The de- 
 nomination awakened to a new self-consciousness and 
 became national. Such were the conditions half a century 
 ago to which this historic occasion demands reference. A 
 wave of sentiment favoring Congregational polity was 
 sweeping through the country, yet it was not until the 
 twenty-first day of May, 1851, that "Congregationalism 
 found a foothold in Chicago, when forty-two out of sixty- 
 eight members of the Third Presbyterian Church, on the 
 West Side, having been excluded from the church by 
 the Presbytery on account of their attitude on the slavery 
 question, called a Council, and were recognized as the 
 ''First Congregational Church of Chicago." 
 
 Eighteen months after, in December, 1852, a colony, 
 prompted by the dissatisfaction with the status of the 
 Presbyterian General Assembly toward slavery, and by 
 their decided preference for Congregational polity, left the 
 First Presbyterian Church, and organized the Plymouth 
 Church on the South Side, consisting of 48 members. 
 
 In the following year, June 15, 1853, the New England 
 Church was organized with a membership of twenty- 
 one. Of neighboring Congregational churches there were 
 few, only four within a radius of forty miles, excepting 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 13 
 
 the First and Plymouth, all feeble, with an aggregate of 
 probably less than two hundred members. 
 
 The origin of the New England Church was suggestive 
 of the circumstances of the times, and the loyal characters 
 who headed the movement. It was felt to be desirable to 
 establish a Congregational paper in Chicago, and Rev. 
 John C. Holbrook, of Dubuque, Iowa, was engaged as 
 editor, an inducement to his accepting this post being an 
 offer to combine with it the pastorate of the Church then 
 under consideration on the North Side. 
 
 Mr. Holbrook entered upon his duties early in '53. 
 "Services were appointed for each Sabbath afternoon at 
 the North Market Hall, a public city building, on the 
 corner of Dearborn and Michigan streets; and prayer- 
 meetings were instituted at private houses. Much en- 
 couragement was given the new impulse by aid received 
 from members of the First and Plymouth Churches." 
 
 About the ist of May, 1853, I quote from the Church 
 records. ''A meeting of those interested in the organiza- 
 tion of a Congregational Church in the North Division of 
 the city was held at the office of the Congregational Herald. 
 Rev. J. C. Holbrook was called to the chair, and Charles 
 Whitney was appointed Secretary. A Committee com- 
 posed of Rev. J. C. Holbrook, C. G. Hammond, G. C. 
 Whitney, Lewis Broad, and J. N. Davidson was chosen 
 to draft proper Principles of Organization and Govern- 
 ment, with Articles of Faith, Covenant, and Rules of Order 
 for the body ; while a second Committee, consisting of Mr. 
 Holbrook, Mr. Whitney, and L. D. Olmsted, were in- 
 structed to call a Council of the Churches to meet 
 during the month of June for the purpose of duly organ- 
 izing a Congregational Church." 
 
 At the close of services on the succeeding Sabbath, the 
 
14 
 
 New England Church 
 
 Committees made report, and after some discussion, the 
 Principles of Organization and Government, with the 
 Covenant, Articles of Faith, and Rules were unanimously 
 adopted. The Committee appointed to call a Council 
 also reported that they had sent letters to the neighboring 
 ministers and churches inviting them to convene in Coun- 
 cil at the Plymouth Church, on the fifteenth day of June 
 following. The list of fourteen churches invited seems 
 small when compared with similar lists at this day, yet it 
 indicates who were considered "neighbors," the First 
 and Plymouth in our own city, with those in Milwaukee, 
 Racine, Waukegan, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, 
 Elgin, Batavia, St. Charles, Naperville, Udina, and Rock- 
 ford. The composition of this Council will bring interest- 
 ing memories to some present. Seven churches were rep- 
 resented. 
 
 Pastor 
 
 The First, Chicago 
 
 The Plymouth, Chicago 
 
 Batavia 
 
 Waukegan 
 
 Udina 
 
 St. Charles 
 
 Elgin 
 
 J. M. Williams 
 J. N. Davis 
 Stephen Peet 
 
 N. C. Clark 
 G. S. F. Savage 
 William H. Starr 
 
 Delegate 
 Philo Carpenter 
 J. R. Shedd 
 S. Bradley 
 E. G. Howe 
 A. Harpending 
 
 H. Wheaton 
 
 The pastor of one of them — at St. Charles — Rev. Dr. 
 Savage, is with us this morning, the only one of that Coun- 
 cil whose eyes have witnessed the changes in political, 
 social, and religious life during the half-century which 
 closes to-day. The other neighboring churches were, one 
 in Fremont, organized, however, as a Presbyterian Church, 
 in 1838; one at Milburn, organized in 1841 ; one In Lyons- 
 ville, organized in 1843; and one in Crete, organized in 1848. 
 
 May I be pardoned if I relate a bit of personal interest 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 15 
 
 in the organization of the church at Fremont, then "Me- 
 chanics' Grove." I quote from their Church Records: 
 ' 'The place chosen for this meeting was the log house of 
 Alfred Payne. The Rev. John Blatchford (my father), 
 pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, was 
 present, and acted as Moderator of the meeting, and also 
 preached the sermon." Sixteen members united by letter. 
 The following is a copy of the document recording the 
 formation of this church, written and signed by the Moder- 
 ator. 
 
 ' 'This may certify that in obedience to the order of 
 the Presbytery, I visited Mechanics' Grove, February 20, 
 1838, and organized a church in accordance with the con- 
 stitution of the Presbyterian Church in the United States 
 of America. 
 
 Following is a list composing the church. It reads — 
 Elisha Clark, Hiram Clark, and Oliver L. Payne were 
 elected ruling elders and were regularly ordained to the 
 office. 
 
 (Signed) John Blatchford. 
 
 A true copy. Elisha Clark. 
 
 In 1850, prompted by its strong anti- slavery views, the 
 Church changed to the Congregational form. With much 
 interest I attended its semi-centennial on February 20, 
 1888. 
 
 The Council was organized in usual form, with Rev. 
 Samuel Peet, Moderator, and Rev. J. M. Williams, Scribe. 
 The Christian aims of the enterprise were fully stated and 
 unanimously sustained. The Articles of Faith, the Cove- 
 nant, and Rules of Order were presented and approved, 
 and it was decided to proceed in the evening to organize 
 the Church. 
 
New England Church 
 
 These exercises were participated in as follows: 
 
 Invocation and Reading of the Scriptures - - Rev. W. H. Starr 
 Prayer ------- Rev. J. M. Davis 
 
 Reading the Articles of Faith - - - Rev. E. F. Dickinson 
 Constituting Prayer and Recognition of the Church, Rev. S. Peet 
 Fellowship of the Churches - . . . Rev. N. C. Clark 
 
 Address to the Church - - - . Rev. J. M. Williams 
 
 Thus, as read the records, "The following persons were 
 organized as a Congregational Church of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ." As we have with us to-day a number of members 
 and descendants of those early families, I read the list of 
 these charter members. 
 
 Rev. John C. Holbrook, from Congregational Church, Dubuque, la. 
 Mrs. A. L. Holbrook, from Congregational Church, Dubuque, la. 
 Abraham Clark, from Congregational Church, Dubuque, la. 
 Mrs. Milicent Clark, from Congregational Church, Dubuque, la. 
 Miss Jane E. Clark, from Congregational Church, Dubuque, la. 
 Miss R. N. Coole, from Congregational Church, Dubuque, la. 
 Charles G. Hammond, from Plymouth Church, Chicago. 
 Mrs. C. G. Hammond, from Plymouth Church, Chicago. 
 Orlando Davidson, from Plymouth Church, Chicago. 
 Mrs. O. Davidson, from Plymouth Church, Chicago. 
 Benjamin Carpenter, from Plymouth Church, Chicago. 
 Mrs. Benjamin Carpenter, from Plymouth Church, Chicago. 
 Lucius D. Olmsted, from Second Presbyterian Church, Chicago. 
 Mrs. L. D. Olmsted, from Second Presbyterian Church, Chicago. 
 James N. Davidson, from First Congregational Church, Chicago. 
 Mrs. J. N. Davidson, from First Congregational Church, Chicago. 
 Miss Elizabeth Davidson, from First Congregational Church, Chi- 
 cago. 
 George C. Whitney, from Sixth Presbyterian Church, Newark, N. J. 
 Mrs. G. C. WTiitney, from Sixth Presbyterian Church, Newark, N. J. 
 Charles A. Whitney, from Sixth Presbyterian Church, Newark, N. J. 
 Miss Sarah Whitney, from Sixth Presbyterian Church, Newark, N. J. 
 (Miss Whitney, now Mrs. Oliphant, is the only survivor of this 
 number.) 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 17 
 
 Soon after, on the 6th of July, Charles G. Hammond 
 and George C. Whitney were by ballot elected deacons; 
 Orlando Davidson was chosen clerk, and James N. Da- 
 vidson, collector. 
 
 These twenty-one early members were all of New Eng- 
 land ancestry. Connecticut gave us the Hammonds and 
 Olmsteds; Vermont, the Holbrook and Clark families; 
 Massachusetts, the Carpenters; New Hampshire, the 
 Davidsons, and the Whitneys. So, when on October 9th 
 of that year, the name, the New England Church, was 
 decided upon, did they perpetuate their early associations. 
 
 For a time services were held regularly on Sabbath 
 afternoons in the North Market Hall. Some pleasant 
 and significant experiences have come down of those days. 
 May I relate one little incident which has recently come 
 to me from one of our faithful members, then a little 
 girl of seven ? There came into the room during service 
 one afternoon a group of Portuguese in their native 
 dress, all adults but one, a small boy, and took seats by 
 the side of the platform with their interpreter, through 
 whom the minister spoke to them of Christ. They were 
 moved to tears, and before leaving sang the Portuguese 
 hymn, music which we have, set to the favorite hymn, 
 "How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord." 'Tt 
 was an impressive sight," my informant said. 'T have 
 felt ever since then that the New England Church was 
 intended to bring in all kinds of people." 
 
 It was a great change when, in the autumn of '53, the 
 Church gave up its temporary quarters in the tovm hall, 
 and took possession of the plain wooden building on the 
 corner of Wolcott and Indiana streets. The lot was 
 bought in the name of Benjamin Carpenter, to whose 
 thoughtfulness in business matters the Church owed 
 
1 8 New England Church 
 
 much in those early days. No formal dedication services 
 were held, but the heartfelt recognition of the event was 
 deep, and in the quiet room soon added on the east, 
 consecrated by our prayer- meetings, were created memo- 
 ries and experiences that hold to two worlds. 
 
 For about two years, until the close of '55, Mr. Hol- 
 brook continued to discharge the double duty of pastor 
 and editor, but found the labor too arduous. Invited to 
 become our pastor, he declined the call, and after a year 
 of exclusive devotion to the paper, returned to the pasto- 
 rate of the Dubuque church. After Mr. Holbrook's 
 departure the pulpit was filled by several clergymen, of 
 whom the Rev. Charles P. Bush remained longest, a 
 period of some nine months. The geniality of Mr. Bush 
 and his wife and his pleasant administration of the 
 affairs of the Church have ever been held in grateful 
 remembrance. 
 
 At this date, three years after our organization, our 
 membership had increased to fifty-four, and there was an 
 ardent longing for a settled pastor. The name of Rev. 
 Samuel C. Bartlett, of Manchester, New Hampshire, 
 had been favorably brought before us. After careful 
 investigations ont he part of the Church, and a visit to 
 our city on his part, he received and accepted our call 
 and entered upon his duties. I well remember the 
 enthusiasm with which Mr. Bartlett went to work. We 
 all felt it. Years after he thus gave to a young friend his 
 reasons for coming to Chicago. "The city had sur- 
 passed all in its growth ; it was the center of the country, 
 the emporium of the opening West; its people are from 
 the East, the choicest spirits; they are the 'brightest and 
 best of the sons of the morning.' The churches are 
 crowded — fifty more churches needed in the city!" 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 19 
 
 And this life began, a life of strong, steady, indefatigable 
 work as pastor and preacher. Our Church and the city 
 were to him a constant study. I early recognized in the 
 topics and application of his preaching a general line of 
 systematic sequential thought leading upward and on- 
 ward, so that when the religious revivals swept through 
 our country in the winter of '58, following the financial 
 panic of the autumn of '57, our Church received a 
 specially rich blessing. Within a few months we received 
 into our membership sixteen on profession and eighteen 
 by letter. Mr. Bartlett's careful guidance and education 
 of the young converts I have never seen equaled. It 
 resembled the catechumen discipline of our Methodist 
 and Episcopalian brethren worthy of our imitation. I 
 have lately seen the question in print, "Has Congrega- 
 tionalism a creed?" As I write, there lies before me a 
 copy of the first printed manual of the church, revised 
 under Mr. Bartlett's direction. To each of its nine 
 articles are appended from fifteen to thirty-two proof 
 texts. "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good," 
 was Mr. Bartlett's motto through life. But this pastoral 
 work was not to be of long duration. Fifteen months 
 after our Church life began, in September, '54, the Chicago 
 Theological Seminary was organized. To secure a teach- 
 ing force that would unite ability and experience was not 
 easy. The qualifications of our pastor for such position 
 were soon recognized, and within a year from his enter- 
 ing upon our work, he was urged to aid in this new, and 
 to him attractive, field. In the hope that his previous 
 studies and experiences would enable him to bear the 
 double burden of pastor and professor, for a limited time 
 he undertook the department of Biblical Literature. 
 The Seminary began its work on October 6, 1858. But 
 
20 New England Church 
 
 such double stress could not long continue. After a few 
 months Mr. Bartlett felt compelled to ask for release 
 from his duties as pastor, feeling, as he wrote us, ' 'the 
 claims of the seminary under present circumstances the 
 stronger." Loyalty to our Seminary existed in the New 
 England Church from the very inception of the institu- 
 tion, but this letter from our pastor called out a strong 
 protest. It was finally accepted, however, and a council 
 was called as requested, which after consideration of 
 the interests involved approved our pastor's views. 
 
 I have given special attention to the facts affecting 
 the establishment of Congregationalism in the West, and 
 to the first pastorate of this Church, on account of the 
 value which always attaches to the beginning of things. 
 Time will not allow in the subsequent sketches more than 
 a brief summary, with such limited statement of events 
 as seems necessary to indicate the progress of the Church. 
 
 At once after Mr. Bartlett's dismission the Church 
 appointed a Committee on Supply, on which Committee 
 were Deacon A. W. Tinkham and Lyman Baird. Pro- 
 fessor Haven of the Seminary was engaged as temporary 
 supply, and Deacon Francis Bradley, brother of the 
 late William H. Bradley, was delegated to go to the East, 
 to explore the field. The result of this action was a call 
 to Rev. Samuel Wolcott, of Providence, R. I., who after 
 visiting us, and preaching two Sabbaths, accepted the 
 call, and was installed on October lo, 1859. 
 
 During this pastorate an outreaching enterprise of the 
 church, called the Elm Street Mission Sunday School, 
 from the street on which it was located, was organized, 
 and awakened much interest; and on December 26, 
 i860, it had so developed that Sunday evening services 
 were called for, and a committee, consisting of the pastor 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 
 
 and Brothers Dickinson, McLennan, Tinkham, and 
 Baird, were appointed to provide a plan of systematic 
 visitation of the district lying north of Chicago Avenue 
 and east of Clark Street. Also at the same meeting ' 'the 
 trustees v^ere requested to select a nev^ location for our 
 Church as soon as practicable." At the annual Church 
 meeting, held the next week, January, 1861, the triennial 
 election of deacons was changed, and the office was made 
 permanent. 
 
 On November 18, 1861, after full conferences by the 
 Church with Mr. Wolcott he presented his resignation, 
 which was approved by a mutual council on December 
 1 8th. The pulpit was then supplied principally by 
 professors from the Seminary, and for three months with 
 much acceptance by Rev. William B. Clarke, of Lowell, 
 Mass. During the early autumn of 1862 the Church 
 heard with interest Rev. Starr H. Nichols, of Danbury, 
 Conn., who was engaged to act as stated supply for one 
 year. His coming introduced new elements in marked 
 contrast to his predecessor. I am reminded of the old 
 and still continued interest of the Church in its ' 'service 
 of song" by the change made at this time from the old 
 ''Hymn and Tune Book" to "Hymns of the Church" 
 by Robinson, and also by active steps taken towards 
 procuring an organ. Originality and poetic thought 
 characterized the sermons of this young minister attract- 
 ing many, while some listened not without apprehension 
 to utterances which I judge in modern nomenclature 
 would be allied to "Higher Criticism." 
 
 Our country was now in the throes of the Civil War. 
 The Church records give frequent evidence of the sym- 
 pathy felt by all hearts in those memorable years. Money 
 was freely given to hospitals, to Christian and Sanitary 
 
New England Church 
 
 Commissions; men enlisted from our number and some 
 prevented from going into the war themselves, at large 
 cost sent substitutes. At one time a generous collection 
 of reading matter for soldiers was made and sent for 
 distribution to Rev. Jeremiah Porter at Memphis, and 
 again to Rev. J. H. Dill, near Nashville, and a generous 
 collection was placed in the hands of Dr. Savage for 
 distribution among the army hospitals. It was a solemn 
 day when on Thursday, August 4, 1864, we observed the 
 "National Fast Day" appointed by President Lincoln. 
 I quote from the call issued by our own church: "In 
 view of the vast interests involved in our struggle, and 
 the critical period of our country's history, and under a 
 deep sense of our dependence on God for the restoration 
 and perpetuity of our National Union." We gathered 
 in the morning in the North Presbyterian, and in the 
 evening in our own church. 
 
 It is an interesting fact that on the first communion 
 Sabbath of 1863 there united with us D wight L. Moody 
 by letter from Plymouth Church of our city, with which 
 he had united from the Mount Vernon Church of Boston. 
 Mr. Moody remained with us a year and a half when, 
 on December 28, 1864, he was dismissed to the Illinois 
 Street Mission, a union church organized at his request 
 by a council of pastors and delegates from city churches. 
 Colonel Hammond, a man to whom Mr. Moody owed 
 more than I have ever seen in print, was delegate to the 
 council from our Church. 
 
 As indicating conditions recognized at this time, I 
 quote a sentence from the deacon's report presented by 
 William H. Bradley at the annual Church meeting on 
 January 3, 1864: "The past year was indeed a year of 
 blessing and evidences the faithful preaching of the word, 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 23 
 
 continued affection between pastor and people, increased 
 size of congregations, the securing a beautiful lot for 
 future church building, the pleasant Church sociables, 
 the new organ, and good influences arising from the 
 Sabbath schools." 
 
 In response to invitation, our Church was represented 
 in the Boston council of 1865 by Colonel Hammond, who 
 was elected its first vice-president, a memorable gathering 
 in its action, ' 'as out of it has grown the Triennial National 
 Congregational Council." For two and a half years Mr. 
 Nichols served the Church as stated supply, this by his 
 own preference, when, the Church desiring a settled 
 pastor, he was chosen, but declined, and accepted a call 
 to Cincinnati. 
 
 The corner-stone of the new church edifice was laid 
 with appropriate ceremonies on August 10, 1865, pre- 
 sided over by our former pastor. Professor Bartlett.* 
 He was assisted by Rev. J. E. Roy. Rev. John P. Gulli- 
 ver, D. D., of Norwich, Conn., who was supplying our 
 pulpit for a few Sabbaths, made a short address on the 
 occasion. Within a month the Church voted a call to 
 Dr. Gulliver to become our pastor, which was accepted, 
 and his installation took place on February 20, 1866. 
 Two additional deacons were now elected, Ellis S. Ches- 
 brough and E. W. Blatchford, and soon after the number 
 was again increased by choice of Abiel W. Tinkham and 
 William Dickinson, and another thorough neighborhood 
 visitation was made. 
 
 The dedication of our new house of worship occurred 
 on Thursday, February 7, 1867. In the spring of this 
 year an earnest call was made upon our Church to yield 
 
 *For Professor Bartlett's interesting address on this occasion, see Ap- 
 pendix A. 
 
24 New England Church 
 
 its pastor to the presidency of Knox College, Galesburg. 
 As the call seemed to him one of duty, a mutual council 
 was called, which after full consideration, advised his 
 acceptance. Dr. Gulliver's services terminated on July 
 22, 1867. There are those with us to-day who will 
 remember Rev. S. Hopkins Emery, D. D., of Quincy, who 
 faithfully ministered to the Church during the following 
 summer and autumn. 
 
 In the previous year, during the erection of the church, 
 there had been obtained and presented to the Church by 
 E. W. Blatchford three memorial stones, associated with 
 the earliest history of the Pilgrim Church, one from 
 Scrooby Manor, England, the second from Delfthaven, 
 Holland, and the third from Plymouth Rock. These, 
 by vote of the Church, were placed over our front portal, 
 where they may be seen to-day. Full account of this 
 interesting matter is given in the Church Records.* 
 
 The Church failed during the winter of 1868 and 1869 
 in its search for a pastor. The general opinion was 
 expressed that a young man of proper character and 
 ability would best meet the demands of this field, and 
 at our request, Messrs. Henry A. Stimson and Leander 
 T. Chamberlain, then members of the senior class in 
 Andover Seminary, were invited to preach for us, each 
 occupying the pulpit one Sabbath. After a favorable 
 report by Deacon Hammond, who went East to learn 
 fully regarding these candidates, the Church, appreciating 
 the ready enthusiasm of the youthful candidate, called 
 Mr. Chamberlain to the pastorate, in which he was 
 ordained and installed by Council on October 27, 1869. 
 
 In this year, 1868, a new departure in the work of the 
 American Board was taken by organizing the ' 'Woman's 
 
 *See this church action in Appendix B. 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 25 
 
 Boards" — the Boston Board in January, and the Woman's 
 Board of the Interior in Chicago in November. The 
 women of our Church, recognizing the new and great 
 opportunity, at once pledged to it their loyalty, and from 
 that time to the present have occupied prominent places 
 in its administration. We do not forget that Mrs. Leake, 
 one of our honored members, was for twenty-two and 
 one-half years its treasurer, within which time there 
 passed through her hands gifts from the fourteen states 
 of the interior sums amounting to a total of over a 
 million and a quarter. Can you estimate the scrupu- 
 lous accuracy and wide correspondence this work 
 involved ? I would mention here the rich gift we 
 made to this cause in the person of Miss Jennie E. 
 Chap in, one of our members. In the spring of 1871 she 
 went out, appointed to the Bridgeman School, in Pekin, 
 China, and at the same time was adopted as their own 
 chosen representative by the Woman's Missionary Society 
 of the Church. For thirty-two years has this consecrated 
 relation continued. Another member, prompted by the 
 same spirit, left us in 1879, for work among colored 
 people, and was for thirteen years, till her marriage, 
 supported by one of our number.* I would also recog- 
 nize in this connection the unwearied readiness to serve 
 which, through all these changing years, has characterized 
 the women of the New England Church. I cannot omit 
 , reference to the ofhce of ''church missionary" for many 
 years made necessary by the presence of needy ones 
 among us. Many of you will remember the interesting 
 reports presented by these faithful, unobtrusive workers — 
 Mrs. Telford, Miss Warren, and Mrs. Flavelle. 
 
 ♦Miss Ella W. Moore, now Mrs. Edgar H. Webster, of Atlanta University, 
 Georgia. 
 
26 New England Church 
 
 I can recognize at this distance of time the renewed 
 interest with which after a year's pastorless condition, 
 the Church responded to a call to duty. A new spiritual 
 life manifested itself, reminding of the blessings which 
 came to us under Professor Bartlett, our first pastor. 
 Prayer and activity characterized the Church life during 
 the winter. At the spring communion of 1870, forty-five 
 were added to our number, nineteen on profession and 
 thirty-six by letter. 
 
 On June 4th of this year, 1871, a severe loss came to 
 us in the death of Deacon Abiel W. Tinkham, whose life 
 is embalmed among the choice memories of those years. 
 His early home was in Maine. He united with us No- 
 vember I, 1857, and was elected deacon January 4, i860, 
 from which office he resigned on January 28, 1863, being 
 called away for a time by Government to superintend 
 repairs on one of our river and harbor fortifications. 
 He was an engineer by profession and long held an im- 
 portant place on our Board of Public Works. Faithful 
 in all Church duties, he is specially remembered for his 
 most acceptable superintendency of both the home and 
 also at times of the Elm Street Sunday Schools. His 
 was a beautiful Christian character, chastened by years 
 of enfeebled health. The end was peace. 
 
 Our hospitable sentiment was shown when soon 
 thereafter, on motion of Dr. Savage, our Church voted 
 to unite with the other Congregational churches of the 
 city in inviting the American Board to hold its annual 
 meeting here in the fall of 1872. 
 
 Alas! Twenty days after this action our city lay in 
 smoking ruins. October 9, 1871, will stand an historic 
 day in our city's life. 
 
 Time forbids the slightest details of that startling event 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 27 
 
 which kindled the sympathies of the world. The north 
 side of our city, from the lake to the North Branch, and 
 from the river for two and a half miles north, was swept 
 over, to say nothing of the great heart of the city on 
 the South Side. Our beautiful house of worship 
 and the homes of our whole congregation, and with but one 
 exception their places of business, were destroyed, and 
 that escaped owing to its location on the west side of the 
 city. Yet in the presence of this appalling disaster, 
 determination and hope were dominant. And where 
 were our members? With affectionate solicitude was 
 this question hourly asked. Efforts were at once made 
 to trace the scattered flock, and within a fortnight a call 
 was issued signed by L. T. Chamberlain, pastor, and 
 C. G. Hammond, chairman of committee, addressed to 
 each member and published in the press. I quote: 
 "The members of the New England Church and con- 
 gregation are earnestly requested to meet at 2 p. m. on 
 Sunday next, the 29th inst., at the First Congregational 
 Church, corner of Ann and Washington streets." What 
 a gathering was that! Ninety-seven met. Many of 
 them for the first time since we were together in our 
 dear church, now ghastly in its blackened walls. Our 
 pastor presided. We sang together the hymn commencing 
 
 " Blest be the tie that binds 
 Our hearts in Christian love." 
 
 The twenty-fourth Psalm was read : 
 
 "The Lord is my Ught and my salvation; whom shall I fear? 
 The Lord is the strength of my Ufe; of whom shall I be afraid ?" 
 
 Our pastor spoke and prayed, and again we sang, 
 
 " I love thy kingdom, Lord, 
 The house of thine abode." 
 
28 New England Church 
 
 Then there was read that startling fragment from a 
 hymn-book found among the ruins of the church, 
 
 Daughter of Zion, from the dust 
 
 Exalt thy fallen head. 
 Again in thy Redeemer trust: 
 
 He calls thee from the dead. 
 
 Rebuild thy walls, thy bounds enlarge, 
 
 And send thy heralds forth. 
 Say to the south, " Give up thy charge"; 
 
 And, " Keep not back, O North ! " 
 
 This historic treasure, appropriately framed by 
 Mrs. Hjortsburg is upon the wall of the church at the 
 left of the pulpit. 
 
 To this homeless band these words were like the 
 appearance of the cross in the sky to Constantine. The 
 clerk then stated that secured from his residence were 
 preserved all the Church records with copies of all Church 
 correspondence, and many deacons', treasurers', Sab- 
 bath school superintendents', and church missionaries' 
 reports. Lyman Baird, clerk and treasurer of the 
 society, stated that all books and papers connected with 
 the society had been preserved in a fire-proof vault; 
 that our church lot and the Lincoln Park lots were clear, 
 and that ten or twelve thousand dollars could be collected 
 from the insurance companies. Words serious, but of 
 good cheer, were spoken by Deacons Hammond and 
 Bradley, Timothy Dwight, E. S. Chesbrough, O. B. 
 Green, Z. B. Taylor, Dr. Savage, S. S. Bliss, and A. L. 
 Coe. The following resolution, moved by Mr. Ches- 
 brough, was unanimously adopted: ''That the New 
 England Church be rebuilt." A committee of seven 
 elected to consider the subject, promptly reported: 
 * 'First, it is expedient to proceed as soon as practicable 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 29 
 
 to rebuild the main edifice in a commodious manner. 
 Second, that our pastor, Rev. L. T. Chamberlain, pro- 
 ceed at once to the East to raise funds among our sister 
 churches. Third, that the pastor and deacons make 
 suitable arrangements for Church services." I cannot 
 exaggerate the promptness with which these plans were 
 executed. 
 
 The associations of the old Church home were dear to 
 us. A Sabbath school, the first on the North Side after 
 the fire, was begun in a temporary warehouse on Clark 
 Street opposite the Newberry Library, and within two 
 months a chapel of four hundred sittings was built, where 
 regular preaching services were begun on Sunday, Decem- 
 ber 3d, followed by the celebration of the communion, 
 a never-to-be-forgotten occasion ! 
 
 I may not omit grateful mention of the inestimable 
 aid rendered in these years by Deacon and Mrs. Ches- 
 brough. They promptly returned to their home lot, and 
 from a modest cottage dispensed a Christian hospitality, 
 and in our Sunday school and church building ministered 
 with a cheerful constancy, which dwells to-day in our 
 memory. 
 
 Less than two years after, in September, 1873, the 
 beautiful chapel was finished, and within three years our 
 present church edifice. 
 
 The autumn of 1876 was made memorable in the 
 Christian history of Chicago by the presence of Mr. 
 Moody, and the series of revival meetings participated in 
 by the city churches. To this work Mr. Chamberlain 
 gave of his time and strength by day and night almost to 
 his breaking down. Our Church felt the influence of 
 these meetings in awakened interest and large accessions 
 in the winter and spring of 1877. In the following 
 
30 New England Church 
 
 summer our pastor, during his vacation, received an 
 earnest call to Norwich, Conn., which was accepted on 
 August 17th. This action received the approval of a 
 mutual council. The pastorate of Mr. Chamberlain is 
 one which must ever stand out prominently in the Church's 
 history. During these years occurred the great fire of 
 1871, with the wide scattering of our flock, the rebuilding 
 of our church, the revival of 1877, with the large additions 
 to our membership, in all of which were pre-eminent his 
 ability, interest, and unwearied activity. 
 
 It was not long before a call was extended to Rev. 
 Arthur Little, of Fond du Lac, Wis., which was accepted, 
 and he was installed June 18, 1878. The twenty-fifth 
 anniversary of the church occurred on June i6th and 17 th 
 of this year and was observed in a truly loyal way. The 
 historical address was delivered by Dr. Little. Appro- 
 priate Sunday school exercises presided over by William 
 Dickinson, then superintendent, were held in the after- 
 noon, and addresses were delivered in the evening by 
 Dr. Savage and Deacons Hammond and Blatchford. 
 
 It was during Dr. Little's pastorate in 1879 that another 
 efficient philanthropy had its origin in this church, the 
 New West Education Commission, for the promotion 
 of Christian civilization of Utah and the adjacent states. 
 Early meetings of conference were held in one of our 
 homes. Among its first directors were Dr. Simeon Gil- 
 bert, Arthur Little, Charles G. Hammond, and E. W. 
 Blatchford. Dr. Gilbert, to whose wise foresight and 
 able presentation of the subject in ministerial and asso- 
 ciational gatherings, and from his editorial chair in the 
 Advance, the society largely owed its success, was chosen 
 vice-president. Colonel Hammond, treasurer, and E. W. 
 Blatchford, secretary. Its first annual convention was 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 31 
 
 held in our Church June, 1881. I may not detain you 
 with details of the steady growth of this beneficent 
 work. The receipts in the first year were over $26,000.00, 
 of which Colonel Hammond gave $1,000.00. He after- 
 wards gave $7,750.00, and his name appears on "wSalt 
 Lake Academy" and "Hammond Hall." Its collections 
 to the present time have been nearly three-quarters of a 
 million, but to compute the influences that have gone 
 out from it into the dark places of our country is impossible. 
 This work is now being carried on by the American 
 Education Society. 
 
 In this year the Sedgwick Street Mission was organized, 
 an enterprise which at once enlisted the enthusiastic 
 support of the Church, which was never withdrawn until 
 changed conditions led to its adoption by ihe City Mission- 
 ary Society. I would also mention the dedication of the 
 New Lincoln Park Church, an event of special interest 
 to us as the completion of the building was secured by 
 the generous gift from Colonel Hammond of fifteen 
 thousand dollars. One of the most beloved of our 
 Christian institutions, the Chicago City Missionary 
 Society, had its initial steps taken in our Church, when 
 at a meeting held on April 6, 1882, an executive committee 
 was elected, of which Deacon Gates was made chairman, 
 who, with William H. Bradley, was among its charter 
 members. Our members have, from the beginning, 
 been on its faithful Board of Directors, and up to the 
 present date our Church leads all others in her contri- 
 butions, a total of $63,361.00. I mention this in this 
 family gathering, and with no boastful spirit. In one of 
 our homes also began the Bohemian work, with which 
 our dear Deacon Gates was so intimately associated. 
 
 The year 1883 opened with an event that drew out 
 
New England Church 
 
 our deepest sympathies for our pastor, the sudden death 
 of his wife, which occurred while Dr. Little was preaching 
 for our neighbor, the Fourth Presbyterian Church. 
 
 During Dr. Little's pastorate, within the space of two 
 years, there came to us a double and sore affliction in the 
 taking to their other home of two of our deacons. Colonel 
 Hammond on April 15, 1884, and Mr. Chesbrough on 
 August 18, 1886. With the memory of both is the history 
 of the New England Church inseparably intertwined. 
 Time forbids a delineation of these noble characters, the 
 one of stalwart mold, a born leader of men, whether as 
 Michigan's auditor-general, or as superintendent of 
 the Michigan Central Railway, then just completed to our 
 city, or as the head of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 
 Road, or of the Union Pacific, or as vice-president of the 
 Pullman Company, Colonel Hammond was always the 
 same clear, decided, wise, conscientious administrator of 
 large responsibilities, traits which he brought with a 
 consecrated power into his church life and into the broader 
 relations of our denomination East and West. The other, 
 Deacon Chesbrough, a man of the St. John type, marked 
 by gentleness and warmth of friendship, the accomplished 
 man of science, associated as a pioneer with some of the 
 important engineering work of our country, whether sur- 
 veying an early railroad through the wild mountains of the 
 Carolinas, or blessing Boston by bringing into it the pure 
 Cochituate water, or as the splendid engineer of our own 
 city, placing it under lasting obligations by tunneling the 
 lake for our water supply, devising the difficult 
 sewerage system, and planning the connection between 
 the lake and the Mississippi; thus placing his name 
 among the first in his profession; and in his private life 
 the devout Christian gentleman daily illustrating the 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary ^;^ 
 
 spirit of the Master. A friend wrote of the late Senator 
 Dawes, ''In his home he was ever the true great soul; 
 his gentleness, his sympathy, his chivalry, his thought- 
 fulness of others made his home the center of the truest 
 hospitality" — such was Chesbrough. 
 
 In December, 1888, Dr. Little closed his pastorate of 
 eleven years, yielding to a pressing call, more than once 
 renewed, from the church in Dorchester, Mass. Efforts 
 made by the Church to induce his continuance with us 
 failed. With his geniality of temper, broad sympathy, 
 and devoted pastoral ministrations in joy and sorrow, 
 he has left with us a memory prized to-day in many a 
 household. We had hoped for his presence with us on 
 this occasion. 
 
 After Dr. Little's departure the Church was favored in 
 securing for six months the services as acting pastor of 
 Rev. Norman Seaver, D. D. 
 
 During this summer of 1890 Caleb F. Gates, for 
 eight years a deacon in this Church, was suddenly taken 
 from us. My intimacy with Mr. Gates of thirty-four 
 years and my association with him in business of a quarter 
 of a century, prompts a fuller tribute than the present 
 hour admits. His rare and symmetrical character as ' 'A 
 Christian Business Man" has been well portrayed in a 
 volume by his son, Rev. Caleb Frank Gates. I wish 
 the book might be in each of our homes. But business 
 enterprise, notable and honorable as it was, is not the 
 characteristic to be emphasized at this hour. He was in 
 a peculiar sense Christ's man, loyal and true, ready, as all 
 who knew him will testify, to respond to every claim of his 
 Divine Master. After a brief illness, on June 9, 1890, the 
 summons came, and with an assurance of peace within, 
 he left us. 
 
34 New England Church 
 
 The next incumbent of the pulpit was the Rev. James 
 Gibson Johnson, D. D. of New London, Conn., who was 
 installed on March ii, 1891. On November i8th of 
 this year Robert W. Patton was elected deacon and con- 
 tinued in the office till five years later, when he changed 
 his residence to Highland Park. On May 31, 1893, 
 W. M. R. French was also elected deacon, and remained 
 in office till his resignation, September 5, 1894, on his 
 removal to his suburban home. 
 
 The Church proved its interest in the foreign missionary 
 work by voting in June, 1895, to grant a furlough to the 
 pastor to visit the mission fields of Japan, as a member 
 of a deputation sent out by the American Board. 
 
 Less than two years after the death of Mr. Gates, 
 another honored officer of the Church was suddenly 
 called away — Deacon William H. Bradley, a member 
 for thirty years, and a deacon for twenty-eight. On the 
 afternoon of a busy day the summons came; his head 
 fell upon his breast, and the spirit took its flight. He 
 died ''in the harness," as he himself had hoped. Mr. 
 Bradley came, in 1837, a youth of twenty-one, from 
 Ridgeland, Conn., to Galena. His education and char- 
 acter at once inspired confidence, and he was elected and 
 re-elected to clerkships in county and state courts until, 
 in 1855, he was appointed by Judges McLean and Drum- 
 mond, clerk of the Circuit Court of the United States, 
 the duties of which he discharged for thirty-seven years 
 till his death. He occupied many important positions of 
 trust, among which was the trusteeship of the Newberry 
 Estate, followed by the Newberry Library. But in this 
 gathering it is Mr. Bradley's distinctive Christian per- 
 sonality that I would emphasize. In 1832 as a youth 
 of sixteen he confessed his Saviour. From that time to 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 35 
 
 the day of his death every natural trait of character glowed 
 under the inspiration of this faith; his kindness and 
 courtesy, his unfailing consideration of others, his gentle- 
 ness and sweetness of spirit, will abide with us as a legacy 
 forever. Dr. Savage and our pastor spoke at his funeral 
 service. An able and just memorial tribute which, at 
 the request of the Church, was prepared by General 
 Leake, is spread in full upon our records. Mr. Bradley 
 permanently associated his name with this audience room 
 by the gift of the baptismal font, presented in memory of 
 his daughter-in-law and her two sons. The old font was 
 obtained by Mr. Bradley from Scrooby Manor, England, 
 where it was associated with the first Pilgrim Church of 
 our denomination. The full and interesting historical 
 statement prepared by Mr. Bradley, and the action of 
 the Church thereon, are preserved in full in the Church 
 Records.* It is of interest that the babe of six months 
 who first received the baptismal seal from this font, has 
 within the past week taken her honorable diploma from 
 an Eastern college. 
 
 On September 3, 1895, there passed from us Deacon 
 Caleb J. Richardson, for nearly thirty years a faithful 
 member, and who for thirteen years had served the Church 
 as deacon. He came to us from his old home in Pennsyl- 
 vania where he had received a college education and been 
 admitted to the bar. After practicing his profession for 
 a few years, his Christian heart responded to the call for 
 work among our soldiers during the Civil War, and he 
 became an active member of the Christian Commission. 
 On his return home he accepted an election to the librarian- 
 ship of the Chicago Law Library, retained till his death. 
 His illness was long and painful, but borne with Christian 
 
 ♦For this statement see Appendix C. 
 
36 New England Church 
 
 patience. We miss him in his accustomed place in the 
 church, and in the prayer-meeting. He has left behind 
 him an enduring memory of a singularly faithful Christian 
 man. His long-time friends, Dr. Savage and Dr. Gilbert, 
 spoke the universal sentiment of the Church in their 
 impressive addresses at the funeral services held in this 
 house. 
 
 On Sunday, April 25, 1897, at the close of the morning 
 service, to the surprise of the Church, our pastor, Dr. 
 Johnson, presented his resignation. A conference with 
 the pastor as to the continuance of his labors was held, 
 the result of which, as related by the committee was, 
 in Dr. Johnson's words, that ' 'as the essential facts of the 
 situation remained unchanged, he deemed it unwise to 
 withdraw his resignation." A council, as requested by 
 our pastor, was called and approved the dissolution of 
 the pastoral relation. Dr. Johnson returned to New 
 England where he soon found a congenial pastorate in 
 Connecticut. 
 
 I come now to the closing pastorate of this half-century. 
 Heretofore, with one exception — Dr. Little — have our 
 pastors come to us like "the wise men, from the east." 
 Our latest gift came from the same direction and across 
 the water. It was a good providence for the cause of 
 highest Christian education throughout our land, when 
 William Douglas Mackenzie was called from his Edin- 
 burgh home to the chair of Systematic Theology in the 
 Chicago Theological Seminary. It was not in the 
 thought of the Seminary Committee or of the nominee 
 that his call would include making practical application 
 of these theological truths to our waiting Church. Yet 
 such was the plan of Him who "sees the end from the 
 beginning." Gratefully do we recognize these five years 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 37 
 
 of his instructive and inspiring teaching, and our united 
 good wishes, tinged with deep regret, accompany him as 
 he leaves us for his New England field of labor. For 
 his faithful associates in the pastorates would we speak 
 with truly thankful hearts — Rev. Horace L. Strain, now 
 pastor, with growing success, of the First Congregational 
 Church at Decatur, in our own state, and Rev. B. S. 
 Winchester still with us with constant and most accept- 
 able labors ministering to our many calls. May he still 
 continue. 
 
 During this pastorate the following events of special 
 interest may be mentioned: 
 
 Amendments to the Church rules adopted December 
 26, 1900. 
 
 The choice of Rev. James Smith, of Ahmednagar, 
 India, as our foreign missionary. 
 
 The election of John R. Montgomery and George D. 
 Holmes as deacons. 
 
 The payment of the Church debt of $14,500.00, con- 
 tributed by "anonymous donors" and gratefully an- 
 nounced to the Church at the annual meeting on January 
 8, 1902. 
 
 I should mention here that twice before in our history 
 the Church has been relieved of a similar incubus of debt 
 by generous subscriptions of the Church and congregation, 
 in many instances at keen personal sacrifice; first, upon 
 the completion of the church building in 1867 of $41,500.00 
 and second of $30,000.00 in 1873 upon its rebuilding after 
 the fire. 
 
 On July 25, 1 901, after a protracted illness. Deacon 
 Albert L. Coe left us. Mr. Coe had been a member of 
 the Church over forty-five years, uniting with it on pro- 
 fession on January i, 1856, three years after he came to 
 
1,8 New England Church 
 
 Chicago from his early home in Ohio. Thirty-three years 
 he had been one of our deacons. After a few years in 
 business, on the breaking out of the war, influenced by 
 patriotism, intensified by his early anti-slavery asso- 
 ciations, he enlisted in the Fifty-fifth Infantry. He served 
 in a number of important battles, under Generals Pope 
 and Rosecrans, Sheridan, Thomas, Grant, and Sherman, 
 and took part in the ''Grand Review" at the close of the 
 war. His business life since in our city has been one of 
 integrity and success. His private life was consistent 
 with his profession ; with modesty and faithfulness he met 
 the claims of the Church and society, till ill-health com- 
 pelled a retirement from his accustomed activities. A 
 large circle of friends and relatives will cherish his memory. 
 
 I wish there were time to set forth the hearty support 
 both in time and money given by our Church to the various 
 benevolent societies — the American Board, the American 
 Missionary Association, the Home Missionary Society, 
 the Education Society, the Church Building Society, the 
 Sunday School and Publishing Society. 
 
 These organizations have, through all the years, 
 looked to our Church, and not in vain, for substantial 
 aid, as has been warmly testified to by letters received by 
 me from their representatives at this interesting epoch. 
 
 Thus within the brief limit allotted have I endeavored 
 to sketch something of the half-century life of the New 
 England Church, yet how small a portion have I been 
 able to give of that panorama of its life that has passed 
 before my eyes during these weeks. I can present you 
 with carefully prepared statistical tables, showing up 
 to to-day admissions to our membership of 1875, including 
 796 on professions of faith, and 1,079 by letter; and of 
 1,177 dismissions, 157 deaths, and 251 dropped from our 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 39 
 
 number, leaving our present membership 290. Think 
 of such a stream of Christian Hfe flowing through these 
 pews within these fifty years. Does it not emphasize the 
 fact that the New England Church has become, as it 
 were, a training school for the suburban churches? 
 
 The attempt is futile to reveal by figures the true life 
 and power of a Church of Christ. Many homes rise 
 before me where the atmosphere of unselfish devotion 
 welcoming little children as God's best gift, trains them 
 for lives of faithful service. In such homes resides the 
 Church's power. 
 
 I cannot close without a word of welcome, in which 
 I know every heart unites, to those former members, who 
 have come to us to-day. The Mother Church has sorely 
 missed you. Your presence to-day gives us cheer. 
 
 As I close these half-century memories, there comes 
 to me a new vision of the value of the Church of Christ. 
 ' 'What would its loss not mean to the community— to the 
 world? How many hospitals, asylums, or ''settlements" 
 or public philanthropies would there be were there no 
 churches? How much honor, how much integrity, how 
 much trust and confidence between man and man if there 
 were none of these reservoirs of moral and spiritual life ?" 
 In the words of another, ' 'The things that I care for most 
 in our Church are not those which divide us from other 
 Christians, but those which unite us to them. The things 
 that I love most in Christianity are those which give it 
 power to save and satisfy, to console and cheer, to inspire 
 and bless, human hearts and lives. The Church that the 
 twentieth century will hear most gladly and honor most 
 sincerely will have two marks : It will be the Church that 
 preaches the central truth of Christianity most clearly, 
 strongly, and joyfully; it will be the Church that finds 
 
40 New England Church 
 
 and shows most happiness in living the simple life and 
 doing good in the world. May that Church be ours." 
 
 For it, let our prayers ascend; to it, let us consecrate 
 our best, united by that love for our common Master, 
 whose love to us is most tenderly revealed as we now 
 come to the table spread by Himself. 
 
ANNIVERSARY SERMON 
 
 BY REV. WILLIAM DOUGLAS MACKENZIE, D. D. 
 
 Pastor of the New England Church 
 
 THE GLORY OF CHRIST THE GLORY OF THE CHURCH 
 
 "Unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask 
 or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be the glory in 
 the Church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations for ever and ever." — 
 Ephesians iii. 20, 21. 
 
 The apostle has been praying for his friends. His 
 mind has been fastened upon those blessings which are 
 highest, higher than the noblest gifts of earth or the fairest 
 heritage of all the generations. For those whom he 
 loves he prays that the Spirit of God may enter into them, 
 and become the very strength of their lives, that the faith of 
 Jesus Christ may inspire them, that their whole active, 
 conscious, intelligent being may be rooted and grounded 
 in love, and that this love may be that love surpassing 
 ken which Christ Himself cherishes toward them. Nay, 
 piling phrase on phrase, as the dawning of his faith and 
 his interior desire strive towards some climax of blessing, 
 he reaches at last a thought, a desire, a prayer, which sur- 
 passes all and includes all, ''that you may be filled unto 
 all the fullness of God." Then it is that the pent-up 
 emotions of his heart, stirred mightily by the over- 
 whelming experience which he has dared to desire for his 
 friends, break out into the doxology which I have dared 
 to take as our text to-night: "Now unto him that is 
 able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask 
 or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto 
 
 41 
 
42 New England Church 
 
 him be the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus unto all 
 generations for ever and ever." 
 
 I. 
 
 We cannot celebrate the life and work of any one 
 church unless we grasp somewhat firmly and clearly the 
 meaning of that universal institution which we call the 
 Church of Christ. For the Church here or there, called 
 by this name or that, is a portion and a representative of a 
 larger whole, of the Church which knows no one language, 
 is limited by no local habitation, and even carries its life 
 and extends its membership beyond the bounds of time. 
 As it would be impossible to understand thoroughly the 
 constitution, spirit, and power of the state of Illinois, or of 
 the city of Chicago, apart from the life of the American 
 nation, even so we cannot estimate the past nor plan for 
 the future of this New England Church unless we see and 
 know, believe and love, the wider life, the vaster power, 
 the richer experience from which it has drawn its exist- 
 ence, and for which it has done its work, — the universal 
 Christian Church of nineteen hundred years. 
 
 But even the Church cannot be understood in and by 
 itself. Its glory, its life, depends on the glory and life of 
 one Person, even Jesus Christ. To understand it we must 
 study Him. All that the Church is or can be it derives 
 from Him. 
 
 The glory of God first appeared fully and unmistakably 
 in His Son. Earlier revelations of the Divine power and 
 Godhead were partial and merely prophetic. Of themselves 
 they could not create a Church, they could not save a world. 
 Their glory disappears in Him, and men discover that after 
 Christ, as after the sunrise, the glistening stars that com- 
 posed one long night have been swallowed up, their use 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 43 
 
 exhausted, their glory wholly absorbed in His. The com- 
 ing of Jesus Christ; His conscious divinity; His divine 
 power; His perfect knowledge of God and his unerring 
 knowledge of man ; His pure grace unsoiled by the union 
 of His nature with humanity, unembittered by its contact 
 with the hostile spirit of sin; His love, the love of God's 
 own Son, which led him to make of Himself a sacrifice for 
 man; His personal glory, which could not be holden of 
 death, which broke through the grave and revealed Him 
 to His disciples and to mankind as the opener of heaven, as 
 the exemplar of man's future, and pledge of victory to all 
 believers; the coming of His Holy Spirit, which is the rev- 
 elation and the medium of His own perpetual presence 
 within the Church, at the very sources of the history of our 
 race, — all these qualities of His Person, all these deeds of 
 His will, all these relations in which He now stands to the 
 world, constitute the very glory of God. Poets, philoso- 
 phers, saints, prophets — the utmost sanctity and peer- 
 less genius — cannot picture a fuller, a more real, a more 
 heartbreaking, a more inspiring revelation of God Himself, 
 our Lord and our Redeemer, our Father and our Friend. 
 There is no other way in which God can be conceived of as 
 making Himself known to us. His glory has been seen 
 with the eye. His word has been heard with the ear of man, 
 his character has done its work. His Spirit has shown its 
 moral quality, its infinite energy, its marvelous purpose, 
 in Christ Jesus. 
 
 But that is not all. Some point of contact was needed 
 to bring this glory of God, thus bodied forth in one Person, 
 into relation with the whole race. This had to be done 
 gradually, under the conditions of space and time, and it 
 was done, it is being done, through the Church. It was on 
 behalf of his disciples. His incipient Church, that Christ 
 
44 New England Church 
 
 prayed in these words : ' 'The glory which Thou hast given 
 me I have given unto them: that they may be one, even 
 as we are one, I in them and Thou in me, that they may be 
 perfected into one; that the world may know that 
 Thou didst send me, and lovedst them even as Thou lovedst 
 me." There we have at once the origin and the unison 
 and the power of the Church summed up in words of in- 
 tensified significance. Jesus, looking even upon those 
 eleven tried and disappointed men, who were now awaiting 
 a tragedy which is their despair, says that He has conveyed 
 to them His own glory, and that through them the world is 
 to understand Him and to behold God's laws. That is to 
 say, the work of the Son of God with all its glory could not 
 become a permanent and a redeeming force in history ex- 
 cept through the life of His Church. In that Church His 
 own life is to be and has been implanted. His glory has 
 been given to it. 
 
 In the eyes of the Apostle Paul even as he wore on 
 toward the close of his splendid life of sacrificial service, 
 the Church grew to be ever more wonderful. A thing half 
 of heaven as well as of earth, it is spoken of in terms which 
 could be lavished on no other institution the world 
 ever saw. In it the visible and the invisible strangely meet 
 and mingle in a realized fellowship and union. Christ 
 is in the Church; it is His bride, beautiful, pure, and ten- 
 der in His eyes as any maiden ever was to him who made 
 her his own ; it is His body, as necessary to Him who is 
 its head as the members of our body severally and col- 
 lectively are to us; it is the temple of God, a wondrous 
 building made of living stones, made of the warm hearts 
 of love and faith, extending its limits over the earth 
 and raising its turrets beyond the clouds into heavenly 
 places, home of those praises which are sweeter in the ear 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 45 
 
 of God than the harps of all angels — praises of stained con- 
 sciences made clean in the waters of forgiveness; praises 
 of dead spirits revived with immortal hope; praises of weak 
 wills and wayward made strong and true; praises of foul 
 imaginations washed into pureness, more dazzling than 
 the snow ; praises of bereaved hearts who know that those 
 who have vanished are really alive behind the veil of sense 
 and sight; praises of the dying themselves as they find 
 themselves stronger and stronger in hope and expectant 
 love while the breath grows feeble and the eyes wax dim. 
 There is another side, of course. The Church has 
 always been composed of human beings, of men and 
 women who were still living in the flesh and whose hearts 
 were the scene of a lifelong spiritual and moral conflict. 
 When Jesus offered that prayer He knew that those men 
 were not yet individually made perfect. When Paul 
 wrote his noblest passages about the glory of the Church 
 of Christ, he knew that he was writing to those whom he 
 had to rebuke for much unworthy life and faith and even 
 for hideous sin. From that day to this the Church has 
 always been sensitive about its own sins, its failures, its 
 blunders. No outsider can criticise it more harshly, more 
 painfully, than it criticises itself. What great writer in the 
 history of the Church has not bemoaned the unworthy 
 lives, the wavering faith, the earthly mind of its members ? 
 To-day that Church of Christ, more widely spread than 
 ever, gaining every year, triumphs whose very monotony 
 has ceased to surprise us, is bitterly attacked both from 
 without and within, by the foes who would destroy it and 
 the friends who would nourish and perfect its life. 
 Who cannot speak easily of what it has not done, to stay 
 the hand of war, to solve vast social problems, to remove 
 many a disastrous curse from the statute books, the law 
 
46 New England Church 
 
 courts, the political practices, the social organization of 
 every Christian land ? We have all thought of these with 
 pain and heard them publicly denounced with shame. 
 And yet, and yet — the glory of Christ is in His Church. 
 Its failure is not at all a proof of His weakness, it merely 
 proves the awful and immeasurable power of the evils 
 with which through it he must contend. Its conquests, the 
 changes which it has brought about, the elevation of human 
 ideals, the purifying of human relations, these are His 
 work and His glory. Through the Church He has wrought 
 them, that the world may believe that He came from God 
 and that God has loved us even as He loved His Son. 
 ' 'Unto Him be the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus 
 unto all generations for ever and ever." 
 
 II. 
 
 And now of this individual Church of Christ we may 
 fittingly say a few words, for the New Testament shows us 
 that whatever is said of the whole Church must be affirmed 
 of each group of Christian believers who call themselves by 
 His name. The little group does not merely possess some 
 of the attributes which belong to the great Church univer- 
 sal; it possesses them all. No quality, however sublime, 
 no privilege, however glorious, no responsibility, however 
 terrible, may be disclaimed by any Church anywhere in 
 our world. It possesses them all, or else it is not a Church. 
 Whatever is true of the Church of the New Testament must 
 be true of the New England Congregational Church in 
 Chicago. Is that the bride of the Lamb ? Then this must 
 be. Is that the temple of God's Spirit ? Then this must 
 be. Is that as close to Christ as the body is to the head of 
 each person ? Then this must be. Is the glory of God 
 shining through the Apostolic Church ? Then it is, it must 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 47 
 
 be, shining through this Church, if so be that we are not 
 reprobate, if so be that we have any right at all to be 
 called a living Church of the living Lord. 
 
 This morning we listened to an invaluable history of 
 this Church since it was organized, on June 15, 1853. Mr. 
 Blatchford told us of the pastors who have been here. He 
 told us of the quality of men and women who worshipped 
 and worked here. His story proved to us that they had 
 all the gifts which by the New Testament are attributed 
 to a true Church of Christ. In these fifty years we have 
 had here those who, ordained or unordained, could stand 
 in the place of the prophet and exhort to all holy living and 
 conquering faith. We have had humble ministering ser- 
 vants, men and women who had the gift of helping their 
 fellow mortals in a hundred different ways; we have had 
 teachers in pulpit and class-room; we have had those to 
 whom God gave the Holy Spirit of liberality which is as 
 truly a divine gift as it is necessary to the healthful growth 
 and beneficent influence of the Church in the world; we 
 have had our leaders who could guide and rule the Church 
 in that considerate and faithful manner which becomes 
 the Church, the most democratic institution in the world ; 
 we have had those who could deal tenderly and mercifully 
 with the erring and the sinful. If all had not the same 
 gift, yet all the gifts, as the history of this Church bears 
 ample witness, seem to have been granted by the merciful 
 love of God to this New England Congregational Church. 
 
 It is not ours to dwell on mere figures to prove these 
 things. Else could we name the nearly two thousand 
 members who have passed through our ranks, the 
 many thousands of children who have been taught in its 
 various schools, the countless ministries of charity and 
 mercy which its members have gone forth week by week 
 
New England Church 
 
 from this place to carry on in this city ; the many hundreds 
 of thousands of dollars which the people, who have been 
 taught and inspired here, have given to all kinds of good 
 work at home and abroad. God only knows how many 
 sins have been covered here, how many tears have been 
 shed and wiped away here, how many souls have been con- 
 verted, or rebuked, or comforted or strengthened by 
 the varied ministries of this Church. It is when you 
 think of these things, when you brood over them, that you 
 realize the beauty, the wonder, the glory of a Church of 
 Christ Jesus. Then you know that, as the apostle says 
 in our text, there is a "power which worketh in us." Who 
 could have wrought all this beauty and tenderness and 
 purity and love and hope and joy in and through this 
 Church? No pastor nor deacon, no woman's heart, 
 though all saintly through and through, no preacher's 
 power, though fired with prophetic passion. It is the 
 very presence and power of the Holy Spirit of Jesus 
 Christ Himself. 
 
 Hence, as to the future we may well take heart of grace. 
 The Church which began with twenty-one members and 
 made this history of fifty years, can begin now, to-night, its 
 new fifty, with over two hundred active members, and per- 
 form — how much more ! The answer is given in our text, 
 "He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we 
 ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." 
 The problem is indeed on the outer side a very different 
 one from what it was. The population is vaster, is more 
 difficult to reach, is less sensitive to the kind of service 
 which this Church has hitherto rendered. But the Church 
 is stronger than then to start on a new history, and the 
 "power that worketh in us" is the very presence and energy 
 of Christ Jesus and His Spirit, and the field consists of 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 49 
 
 human hearts as needy and as responsive as ever they 
 have been. 
 
 The three qualities which are needed are adaptation, 
 self-sacrifice, and confidence in the Divine power. Give 
 me those three in the hearts of any people and they can do 
 absolutely anything with the population that surrounds 
 them. Adaptation is needed — adaptation of public ser- 
 vice on Sunday, adaptation of pastoral and teaching min- 
 istry through the week, adaptation of the relations of the 
 Church to the changed social conditions of these streets 
 that surround us. Self-sacrifice is needed — not merely in 
 gifts of money, but in personal devotion, in continuous 
 prayer, in humble and earnest determination to take some 
 share in bringing the gospel to the hearts of this communi- 
 ty. Confidence is needed, sublime confidence that this 
 grand Church has its grand work to do, that the next fifty 
 years will see more conversions, more hearts comforted, 
 more lives made in every sense divine than the past 
 fifty years. It is strange how much is done by confidence. 
 In the world this is largely true and in the Church it is 
 truest of all. For in the world's life confidence may mean 
 merely the added alertness of observation, clearness of 
 judgment, quickness of decision, which the self-confident 
 man is apt to exercise. In the Church it means that, and 
 as much more as God's blessing is more than man's en- 
 dowment. For here confidence in our work is confidence 
 in God, in His love toward us, and in His blessing upon our 
 work. As Dr. Dale once said : ' 'Wp never learn how dear 
 we are to God's heart until we discover that He has trusted 
 us with the work about which He cares the most, and only 
 in this service is it possible for us actually to realize the truth 
 which seems to lie so far above us, and yet is so near, that we 
 are one with Christ and heirs with Christ of the eternal 
 
50 New England Church 
 
 glory. It is all of a piece ; refuse to recognize and acknowl- 
 edge, refuse to discharge the great obligations of the Chris- 
 tian life, and its prerogatives will appear incredible. The 
 duties and the glories go together. It is because we have 
 received the life of God that we are able to bring the world 
 home to God, and we shall never quite believe or half be- 
 lieve in the greatness that has come to us, until in actual 
 effort and endeavor we fulfill the duties associated with 
 that greatness." 
 
 ' 'The duties and the glories go together." Can we do 
 aught more worthy, more fitting, more powerful, than pray 
 to-night that for ourselves and our successors, in adapta- 
 tion, in self-sacrifice, in the holy confidence of God, this 
 great unity of privilege and opportunity, of adoration and 
 service, may become a lasting experience ? For God is 
 able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or 
 think, according to the power that worketh in us. To 
 him let all glory be given in the Church and in Christ 
 Jesus unto all generations for ever and ever. Amen ! 
 
THE SPIRIT OF THE NEW ENGLAND CHURCH 
 
 PAPER PRESENTED BY REV. SIMEON GILBERT, D. D. 
 On Monday Evening, June 14, 1903 
 
 The Spirit — whoever saw a spirit ? And yet, whoever 
 lives a day that he does not feel, in some way or another, 
 the presence, the contact, the intensive impress and force 
 of some spirit ? The spirit of the home ; the spirit of the 
 school ; the spirit of the church— is not this the prime thing, 
 almost the supreme thing, after all? 
 
 How the spirit of the body comes to be, and to be such 
 as it is, is often a deep mystery, a very sacred mystery. 
 The wind bloweth where it listeth; men hear the sound 
 thereof, but cannot tell whence, or whither. The fruit has 
 its own flavor; the flower its own fragrance; and each 
 church has its own characteristic spirit, which, if we may 
 use a bit of Latin, is its "vis vivanda vitae" — the very life 
 of its life. 
 
 Of course, every true Church has, in its own degree and 
 way, the spirit of Christ. That is the vital starting-point. 
 This begins at its birth. Then it begins to grow. Hence- 
 forth, as at the first creation, it has seed within itself. This 
 growth is a composite result. As each member helps to 
 make it what it is, so every member has a share in its re- 
 sponsibility. 
 
 At any rate, it may be said of this New England Church, 
 it was well born. Doubtless its name had something to 
 do with this. The fact that it had that name given it 
 meant something to the original members. It was indeed 
 a tribute to the ''Spirit of the Pilgrims." Though born 
 51 
 
52 New England Church 
 
 in Chicago, it had a distinctly New England genesis. In a 
 way, it was a fine sort of reincarnation. The new Church 
 consciously took on the best ideals of the New England 
 spirit. And this was as true of its early members as of its 
 first pastors, Drs. Holbrook and Bartlett. 
 
 But all this was so in no servile way. A church, started 
 in the heart of such a city as Chicago, could not help but 
 share deeply, however unconsciously, in at once the spirit 
 of the place and the spirit of the time. No need here to 
 stop to explain what that meant in that case; but, as we all 
 know, there was a tremendous deal of meaning and of po- 
 tentiality in that Chicago spirit, when Chicago itself was 
 in the throes of its own civic birth and genetic character. 
 
 No doubt there is nothing good in anything that really 
 lives without good seed, and yet, quite next in importance 
 is the soil. In case of this New England Church the spirit 
 of it came into embodiment in a soil that was peculiarly 
 vivific and dynamic. And this was at a point where the 
 forces of the mighty West were being focalized in such a 
 way that it were a stolid church that could escape cherish- 
 ing the open outlook, and having some passion for doing 
 things, more especially for doing some new and original 
 things. Naturally, this feeling came to pervade this 
 Church that it was of its destiny to be, in the best sense of 
 the term, an opportunist, watching for the next opening, 
 doing the next things, and that in the time of it. 
 
 It was a most characteristic saying of the late Colonel 
 C. G. Hammond, that in Chicago there is an everlasting 
 emergency, a perpetual crisis. Accordingly, whatever may 
 or may not be true of it at the present moment, in years 
 gone by the characteristic spirit of this New England 
 Church did have about it a note of sagacity, of out-reach, 
 of enterprise, of reverence for the clear leadings of Prov- 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 53 
 
 idence, and with this, some sense of victory and divine 
 success. 
 
 The beginnings of Mr. Moody's marvelously origina- 
 tive and aggressive career belonged to this part of the city, 
 and had the earnest sympathy and support of this Church, 
 of which, for a while, he was a member. While he was 
 coralling, getting teachers for, subduing, winning those 
 throngs of street arabs somewhat nearer the river, this 
 Church, besides building up its own Sunday school, was 
 starting and maintaining numbers of other Sunday schools 
 that have since grown into churches — some of these, as the 
 Lincoln Park Church, into kindred fruitfulness and power. 
 
 Another thing about the spirit of this Church is, that it 
 has believed that God is to be ''loved with all the mind," 
 as well as with all the heart. Hence it has cherished a 
 reverence for truth, has honored intelligence, has appre- 
 ciated intellectual culture. It has fostered a sane and 
 wholesome temper. It has, from first to last, been favored 
 with a highly intellectual pastorate. As was natural, a 
 remarkably large proportion of the children of the Church 
 have been given the highest advantages for education. 
 They have most of them, boys and girls alike, found their 
 way to college as a matter of course. 
 
 And, moreover, in this connection it is of interest to note 
 that the Church has, to an exceptional degree, as I think, 
 kept a watchful and good eye out upon the children of the 
 Church, scarcely a single one of whom has been left to go 
 to the bad. When its sons or daughters have gone forth 
 to college or other schools, or other places of residence, 
 they have been keenly remembered; remembered with a 
 common family pride, a common family solicitude, and 
 an all-environing family hope. Nor has hardly anything 
 here been finer, or really more potential, than this spirit 
 
54 New England Church 
 
 of hope and good expectation, which has ever and every- 
 where followed the children of the New England Church. 
 Nor could any boy or girl well avoid the inspiring con- 
 sciousness of this over-brooding spirit of loving solicitude. 
 
 Right here, however, it may as well perhaps be ad- 
 mitted, that this sense of the membership of the Church 
 as a close-knit family, that has indeed been in so many 
 ways fostered and intensified, has, at times, seemed to be 
 rather too satisfied with the sufficiency of that, and not 
 quite alert enough to see how all this might seem to those 
 just outside its own peculiar circle, or to those more newly 
 come into its sphere of relationship. Nevertheless, it re- 
 mains true that this Church has cherished a distinctly 
 broad-gauged way of looking on its relations and respon- 
 sibility to interests beyond itself — to the city as a whole; 
 to what is commonly known as the Great West ; to that vast 
 region known as the New West; to the country in its to- 
 tality; to the entire missionary undertaking, home and 
 foreign. In this respect this Church has had, in somewhat 
 eminent degree, what may be called the cosmic quality 
 of mind as related to human kinship and Christian 
 obligation all round the world. 
 
 Were there great public works for the city to be de- 
 vised and constructed, as for instance its original water 
 supply, here were found men of genius equal to the task, 
 with personal character utterly trustworthy. Were rail- 
 ways of continental scope to be projected and managed, 
 here were men competent for the highest duties of this sort. 
 Were there Christian colleges springing up on all sides, 
 again and again making rightful appeals for generous help- 
 ing in just the nick of critical exigency, when timely giving 
 might prove to be of vital and of endless consequence, here 
 were found men and women quick to respond. Was a 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 55 
 
 theological seminary, conceived on the broadest lines of 
 adaptation to varied and immeasurable needs, such as 
 from the first, and year after year, would demand a clear- 
 seeing and puissant kind of helpful befriending, here were 
 those who waited for no urging, and who never grew weary 
 in their helping. Was there another great educational 
 institution, as a free public library for all the city, to be 
 organized and estabhshed in its vast perennial beneficence, 
 here were men conspicuously fit to have such a work in- 
 trusted to them. Was the nation plunged into the life- 
 and-death throes of a supreme struggle, that between 
 Freedom and Slavery, with vast armies not only to be 
 raised, but to be Christianly cared for; did a terrific confla- 
 gration consume the city, creating sudden emergencies of 
 unspeakable moment; did the time come when a great 
 new missionary organization must be formed, not only to 
 meet the educational and religious necessities of the so- 
 called New West, but to tide the public sentiment of the 
 nation itself over a particularly acute crisis in its history; 
 was a new home missionary society to be formed for our 
 own state; was a new city missionary society to be origin- 
 ated and given strong send-off, and to be sustained in a 
 way suitable to such a fast-expanding city as this; was still 
 another peculiar agency seen to be a necessity in order to 
 reach, with vital helpfulness, large portions in our city of 
 foreign birth and speech ; were these, and other such like 
 undertakings, in the swiftly unfolding providence of God, 
 waiting for the churches and other Christian organizations 
 to rise up and boldly take their part — this New England 
 Church, it is but sober history to say, has, during these fifty 
 eventful years, had the men and the women — the women 
 not less than the men — closely banded together, nurtured 
 and cultivated into practicality and power, who strove, 
 
56 New England Church 
 
 humbly, boldly and not in vain, to meet the thronging 
 emergencies of their time, evincing a spirit that is to-day 
 worthy of loving and inspiring commemoration. 
 
 But the end is not yet. We, ourselves, are stUl in the 
 midst of it. This high Jubilee of ours, in which these 
 neighbors and some from across the sea, as Dr. Munro 
 Gibson of London, have so kindly come in from all sides 
 to evince their sympathy and share with us in it, this sacred 
 Memorial Jubilee was not, I take it, meant to be like 
 "words that untie on the lips and disband in the air," 
 much less to be an occasion for shifting off our own re- 
 sponsibilities by garnishing the sepulchres of the prophets. 
 
 As wise men and women who do not need to be remind- 
 ed that there is not any mill that can grind with water that 
 is past, mindful of the infinite significance and portents of 
 the time, and the conditions in the midst of which we, our- 
 selves, are placed, should not this Fiftieth Anniversary of 
 our Church seem to be a fateful day — as it were, a kind of 
 anticipatory "section of the day of judgment" ? 
 
 Whether, as for the days now immediately before us 
 and the years that are to come, the still ruling spirit of the 
 New England Church is such as will consummately fit it 
 for the changed conditions and the new times — is not 
 this, after all, the supremely pertinent question ? 
 
 And yet, is it not true, too, that these divinely gracious 
 memories of the past may be the ever-living well-springs 
 of hope, of courage, of all grateful and high hearted devo- 
 tion? 
 
 And let all the people say Amen and Amen ! 
 
LETTER FROM REV. LEANDER T. CHAMBER- 
 LAIN, D. D. 
 
 PASTOR OF THE CHURCH FROM 1869 TO 1877 
 
 West Brookfield, Mass., June 28, 1903. 
 To the New England Church, on its Fiftieth Anniversary. 
 
 My Dear Friends: As it is never unseasonable to send 
 congratulations and best wishes, I venture to forward 
 now the message which would have been sent before, 
 had the notification reached me in time. Indeed, had it 
 been possible, I should have enjoyed being with you in 
 person, not only to meet you, but also to revive the 
 precious memories of those who have passed away. Be- 
 yond question, the New England Church has had a half- 
 century of very great usefulness and honor. 
 
 Moreover, as in the vast majority of instances in which 
 an unusually strong and beneficent church influence has 
 been exerted, the secret is to be sought for in the char- 
 acter of the Church's own membership. To the New 
 England Church, in its primitive times, were given singu- 
 larly able and devoted pastors. Dr. Bartlett and Dr. 
 Gulliver were men of rare ability and devotion. Besides 
 their eminence in the pastorate and the pulpit, they were 
 foremost in other important directions; and what they 
 thus attained reflected honor upon the Church to which 
 they ministered. 
 
 Yet the Church's central permanent power was not in 
 them. It was, rather, in the make-up of the Church itself. 
 The untitled, unofficial membership included men and 
 women whose character and culture, whose ability and 
 
 57 
 
58 New England Church 
 
 consecration, gave to the Church an early influence and 
 leadership such as rarely belongs to a Church's opening 
 years. 
 
 I have seldom, if ever, known a church which had, at 
 any period of its history, such a group of men — to mention 
 only those who have gone to their rest and their reward — 
 as that of which Colonel Hammond and Mr. Chesbrough 
 and Mr. Bradley were members. No one who knew those 
 men and their associates could long w^onder that the New 
 England Church exercised a strong and helpful influence 
 not only in the community and the city, but also in the 
 state and the nation. 
 
 Nor was the noble power confined to that distinguished 
 circle. Throughout the membership there was an un- 
 derstanding and sympathy, a generous capability of self- 
 denial, a genius for working together, such as might well 
 suffice to make any church, with God's blessing, a power 
 for good. I wish I might have joined in the commemora- 
 tion of such an early history ! 
 
 I confess that the longer I live, the more I wonder that 
 the New England Church, thus made up, and before it had 
 arrived at the half-way goal of its first semi-centennial, 
 invited me to become its pastor. As if it were yesterday, 
 I recall the inclement Sunday on which I first spoke in your 
 pulpit — the storm of the evening almost necessitating the 
 retiring from the main audience-room to the prayer-room 
 of the chapel. And never shall I forget the astonishment 
 with which, while my graduation from the Theological 
 Seminary was still a full term away, I received your in- 
 vitation ! I think that scarce anything but Colonel Ham- 
 mond's gentle, and commanding, and personal, persuasion, 
 could have made me believe that the acceptance of such a 
 call was the will of God. And certainly only the patient, 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 59 
 
 loyal, rigorous support of the strong group to which I have 
 referred, as well as of the noble membership at large of 
 which I have made grateful mention, could have enabled 
 me, with the divine blessing, to sustain my cares and to do 
 my work. 
 
 Very tenderly do I remember the special manifestations 
 of God's gracious presence — the spiritual awakenings 
 among the followers of Christ, and the turning to the Mas- 
 ter of those of our members who had been comparatively 
 indifferent to His claims. With many others, I was im- 
 measurably benefited by the signal and wide-spread re- 
 vival which accompanied the labors of Mr. Moody. 
 
 Altogether, the years which I spent with the New Eng- 
 land Church are to me memorable and precious — including 
 as they did, the "Great Fire," and the still greater restora- 
 tion. I need not recount these scenes, scenes in which 
 human nature showed the heights of generous courage, 
 and the depths of tender compassion. I ceaselessly thank 
 God for the part which He permitted me to have in those 
 trying times; nor shall I ever fail to thank Him for per- 
 mitting me to see the glories of the burned temple more 
 than equaled by the later structure, and the prosperity of 
 the Church itself completely re-established. 
 
 Pardon the length at which I have written ; yet I have 
 expressed less than a tithe of what is in my mind and heart. 
 
 Praying that goodness and mercy may follow all of you 
 in all things, and that the future years may be more blessed, 
 both temporally and spiritually, than even the best years 
 of the past, I remain, as ever. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 Leander T. Chamberlain. 
 
LETTER FROM REV. ARTHUR LITTLE, D. D. 
 
 PASTOR OF THE CHURCH FROM 1878 TO 1888 
 
 Dorchester, Mass., June 12, 1903. 
 To the Pastors and Members of the New England Church 
 
 and Congregation. 
 
 My Dear Friends: The year of jubilee is come. How 
 I wish I could be present and join with you in "blowing 
 the trumpet," and in any other observances appropriate 
 to the notable occasion! 
 
 I do not need to tell you that I still have an affectionate 
 interest in the church with which, during more than one- 
 fifth of its entire history, I was actively identified as pastor. 
 What a rush of memories crowds in upon my mind as I 
 begin to write, but I must refuse to yield to the fascinating 
 spell lest I weary your patience. While I cannot recall 
 my part in the work of these years with much satisfaction, 
 I do think of yours with much pleasure. 
 
 ' T was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much 
 trembling." How exactly those words describe the earlier 
 years of my ministry among you you may never know. 
 Wliatever may have been true since, during the first 
 twenty-five years of its history, the New England Church 
 was distinguished for its able ministry. 
 
 This fact came home to me with great distinctness 
 when I was preparing a sermon in connection with the 
 twenty-fifth anniversary of the Church, during the first 
 year of my pastorate. I had occasion to study the men 
 and estimate their character and work. For me to main- 
 tain the same high level of ministerial influence and power 
 60 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 6i 
 
 seemed impossible. The thought, though a fine incentive, 
 depressed me. I felt sure that you, who knew a good thing 
 when you saw it and had been accustomed to a good thing, 
 would soon find me out. And so you did, but your Chris- 
 tian courtesy, forbearance, kindness, and co-operation 
 soon allayed my fears and gave me increasing confidence. 
 
 This glimpse into my subjective state at that time will 
 be quite enough. 
 
 In reviewing the history and work of the New England 
 Church from the beginning until now, a most important 
 fact to keep in mind is that its influence at home and 
 abroad has been all out of proportion to its numbers. It 
 must be weighed and not counted. It has been a center 
 with a large circumference. It has shown considerable 
 power of initiative. Its force has been dynamic, pene- 
 trative, out-reaching, invisible. Its ideals have been so 
 far in advance of its actual and visible achievements, that, 
 instead of much satisfaction in things done, it has been 
 steadily under the constraining influence of a noble dis- 
 content. Without some personal reminiscences, this letter 
 would have no value. In looking over a diary, kept during 
 the first five years of my pastorate in this Church, some- 
 what to my surprise, I find frequent entries like these: ' 'full 
 attendance" on Sunday morning; "good attendance," 
 "fair attendance" Sunday evening; "excellent prayer- 
 meeting"; ''delightful sociable"; and no end of committee 
 meetings, receptions, charming dinners, and teas, and social 
 hours in many of the homes. I find also many pleasant 
 references to my "boys' meetings," "morning bible class," 
 "children's meetings" and agencies of that kind. It has 
 also been agreeable to note that at most of the communion 
 seasons there were some additions to the church. The 
 number of engagements outside of the Church is something 
 
62 New England Church 
 
 appalling, that easy infirmity of the ministerial mind. It 
 was while I was with you that extensive improvements 
 were made on the edifice, in the remodeling of the en- 
 trance to the chapel and stairway to the Sunday school 
 room, and also in putting galleries into the audience-room. 
 
 In large part, through the liberality of Colonel Ham- 
 mond, the Sedgwick Street Chapel was built, a Sunday 
 school maintained, and a branch church organized while 
 I was pastor. During this period, the Lincoln Park 
 Congregational Church was finished and dedicated, the 
 work being hastened by a gift from the same source. In 
 the organization of the New West Education Commission, 
 the Illinois Home Missionary Society and the Chicago 
 Missionary Society, the New England Church bore a 
 most influential and decisive part, during these same years. 
 
 Well do I remember these enterprises, created for the 
 extension of the Redeemer's Kingdom on earth, in their 
 incipiency, and the thought, strength, time, wisdom, 
 prayer and money put into them by strong men in the 
 New England Church. Add to this the time, thought, 
 strength, money and personal service — much of it official- 
 given to the Chicago Theological Seminary and the Ameri- 
 can Board by the men and women of this Church and the 
 record becomes monumental. It admits of no com- 
 putation in the arithmetic of earth. The record is on 
 high. 
 
 I may further say that the Church may take an honest 
 pride in the number of young men and women who have 
 graduated from the colleges and higher institutions of 
 learning in various parts of the country. Many such do 
 I now recall. 
 
 I cannot refrain from mentioning the names of some 
 very eminent and eloquent ministers of the gospel who 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 
 
 occasionally preached in the pulpit of the New England 
 Church while I was there. Dr. Post, who preached the 
 sermon at my installation and on two or three other 
 occasions; Dr. Sturtevant, Dr. George L. Walker, Dr. 
 Patton, Dr. Goodwin, Dr. Fisk, Dr. Boardman, Dr. 
 Goddell, Dr. Herrick Johnson, Dr. H. M. Scudder, Dr. 
 R. S. Storrs — what a privilege and distinction even to 
 have known, heard, and labored with such men ! Men 
 devoted to "plain living and high thinking." 
 
 But much more did I value and I do now tenderly 
 and gratefully remember the closer, more personal, and 
 familiar association, in our daily work, with a large 
 number of men and women in the Church, among whom, 
 inasmuch as they have now joined the nobler fellowship 
 of the glorified in heaven, I may venture to mention the 
 names of Chesbrough, Hammond, Bradley, Richardson, 
 Coe, Gates, Herbert, Mrs. Chesbrough, Mrs. Hjorstberg, 
 Mrs. Bradley, Mrs. Montgomery, Mrs. N. H. Blatchford, 
 and Mrs. William Dickinson — a company of choice 
 spirits, to be associated with whom in Christian work 
 was as rare a privilege as ever fell to the lot of any pastor 
 in the world. 
 
 I must take the liberty of mentioning the name of one 
 other man who, though he is still living, cannot be hurt 
 by praise — the model minister, the model parishioner, the 
 model Christian man — everybody's helper and friend — 
 Dr. Savage. Late may he return to the skies. 
 
 I know you will pardon me if I venture to lift the veil 
 for a moment to refer to an incident which meant vastly 
 more to me than it possibly could to you — the one great 
 sorrow of my life — about the middle of my pastorate 
 among you, in connection with which the New England 
 Church showed its loving heart. You can never know how 
 
64 New England Church 
 
 far your sympathy, your kindness, and your generous 
 support shown in many ways went in helping me to bear 
 the sudden and overwhelming shock. Till then I never 
 knew the value of Christian sympathy as you showed it, 
 nor can I ever requite you for it. 
 
 If my ministry began with somewhat of misgiving, it 
 continued with growing confidence, and ended with 
 assurances of esteem and affection which made it most 
 difficult for me to go elsewhere. Eleven happy years — 
 most agreeable to remember. 
 
 Although it is now more than fourteen years since we 
 parted, I have kept myself well informed touching the 
 work of the Church and the welfare of its families. 
 
 I am sure, if my daughter, Mrs. Thompson, were 
 here at this moment, she would beg to join me in loving 
 and remembering Christian salutations to all whom we 
 knew, for it was in this Church that she first confessed 
 Christ. 
 
 I am sure you will round out the half-century of Church 
 life to-night with profound thankfulness to God for all 
 the way of goodness and loving kindness along which He 
 has led you in the past, and with renewed hopefulness 
 and confidence in His guidance for the future. 
 
 "The Lord bless thee and keep thee; The Lord make His face 
 shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; The Lord lift up His 
 countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." 
 
 Affectionately yours, 
 
 Arthur Little. 
 
LETTER FROM REV. JAMES GIBSON JOHN- 
 SON, D. D. 
 
 PASTOR OF THE CHURCH FROM 1891 TO 1897 
 
 To the New England Church. 
 
 My Dear Friends: — Dr. Mackenzie has asked me for 
 a ''message" on the occasion of your fiftieth anniversary. 
 It surely is a message of congratulation and good wishes. 
 My six years of hearty work as your pastor has left with 
 me precious memories and a clear faith that your work 
 is not in vain in the Lord. I am sure that the unseen 
 effects of any Church life are greater than those that are 
 recognized and recorded. We all feel the defect of 
 human effort, even the best. But the Head of the Church 
 has chosen to act largely through human agencies, and 
 the long story of the Church of Christ on earth as well as 
 this half -century of your Church's life, makes very plain 
 the divine efficiency that is thus brought to bear on the 
 heart and lives of men. I love to think of the many — 
 especially of the young men, now widely scattered — 
 who came into the Christian life during my stay with 
 you. 
 
 The New England Church has lived through many 
 crises — notably the great fire that consumed its house of 
 worship, but which only added ardor to the loyalty of its 
 members. Changes that are dreaded and regretted often 
 are the way to new energy and greater blessing, for the 
 Master is faithful to his servants whom he calls 
 friends. 
 
 May the future of the dear old New England Church 
 65 
 
66 New England Church 
 
 be full of blessing to the loyal people who remain, and to 
 the many who are yet to be reached by its noble and 
 earnest activities. 
 
 Such is the sincere prayer of your loving friend and 
 former pastor. 
 
 James Gibson Johnson. 
 
 Farmington, Conn., June 8, 1903. 
 
LETTER FROM REV. HORACE LESLIE STRAIN 
 
 ASSISTANT PASTOR OF THE CHURCH FROM 189S TO 1900 
 
 First Congregational Church, 
 Decatur, 111., June 13, 1903. 
 
 This note is to acknowledge to the committee the 
 receipt of the invitation to the celebration of New Eng- 
 land Church's fiftieth birthday. 
 
 As I cannot be present to express in person my con- 
 gratulations and best wishes I send them thus to you. 
 Surely the Church has a past to be proud of, and names 
 of great and good men and women to recall with grati- 
 tude and joyful satisfaction ! May the memories of the 
 years give you all their truest and best blessings as you 
 recount them ! 
 
 But may I also wish that the heritage of the past, rich 
 and glorious as it is, may inspire a worthy vision of the 
 future, until entering into its fulfillment, New England 
 Church may possess a life and usefulness of which these 
 years are but the beginning. This is the prayer of one 
 who tried to serve and loves. 
 
 Faithfully, 
 
 Horace L. Strain. 
 
 67 
 
APPENDIX A 
 
 Rev. Professor Samuel C. Bartlett addressed the audience gathered, 
 remarking that they were there to lay the foundation of the New 
 England Church edifice, or as the fathers would say, of the " meeting- 
 house," for they were ever careful to distinguish the material from 
 the spiritual building. The foundation of the church proper was 
 laid more than ten years ago, when a few brethren entered into 
 covenant to maintain the ordinances of the gospel. The name, 
 "New England Church," which they assumed, was suggestive: 
 
 1. Of their origin. Of the twenty-one brothers and sisters, the 
 first members, all were of New England origin and nearly all of New 
 England nativity. Subsequent additions were most of them from 
 the same origin. When he became pastor in 1857, he found mem- 
 bers from Portland, Boston, Hartford, Worcester, and Providence, 
 and now that the original twenty had grown to two hundred, as he 
 looked around, their names and faces were almost all suggestive 
 of New England. 
 
 2. The name New England was also suggestive of the whole 
 circle of influences that had radiated from Plymouth Rock. This 
 church is a representative of that formed in the Mayflower by men 
 who gave the shortest and the best definition of democracy ever 
 uttered, " such just and equal laws, etc., as are most meet and conve- 
 nient for the general good." They landed with the Bible in one hand 
 and the axe in the other. They put the ballot into every man's 
 hand and in due time the bullet also. They beUeved in a law of 
 God, supreme above all human enactments. Their Governor (Brad- 
 ford) was wont to go to their rude church building with Elder 
 Brewster on one side of him and Captain Miles Standish on the other 
 side. From such men have gone out a wide and mighty circle of in- 
 fluences radiating west in a broad zone. With them originated the free 
 school system, the foreign missionary societies of this country, the 
 Home Missionary Society, the Education Society, Tract Society, and 
 the great temperance movement. The churches of their faith have 
 
 68 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 69 
 
 in these days stood in the forefront of the great struggle for equal 
 rights. New England has been so conspicuous in our history that 
 the idea of leaving her out was as absurd as for the moon and planets 
 to talk of leaving out the sun. 
 
 3. The name was also suggestive of Christian fellowship — a 
 fellowship as unbroken as the seamless robe of Christ. The New 
 England churches had already welcomed the godly of other churches 
 to their communion. 
 
 4. It suggested also a free church polity — which claims the right 
 of self-government, which acknowledged no authority above it on 
 earth, which called no man master, which taught the equality of its 
 ministers, and assigned them the place, not of rulers, but of leaders. 
 While it allows others its own free choice, yet it claims for its own 
 church the high prerogatives of self-government. And truly it would 
 seem that if regenerated men are not competent to govern them- 
 selves, nobody is competent to govern them; and then farewell to 
 the whole idea of self-government. Yet this polity acknowledged 
 a kind of discipline among its circles of churches — one of advice 
 and persuasion and conciliation, which seeks to heal divisions 
 not by suppression and authority — which does not imagine that 
 disorders are cured when the heel of power has been placed upon 
 them, but when erring brethren have been lovingly won from the 
 wrong course. 
 
 5. The name is suggestive, too, of a system of doctrines. The 
 evangelical system, with the Bible as the sole authority; the Calvin- 
 istic system, as modified by New England divines after a careful 
 study of the Scriptures; these doctrines are the grand secret of all 
 that New England has ever been and ever done. Therefore, let this 
 building go up, and these walls echo these doctrines, and let them be 
 perpetuated to the end of time. 
 
APPENDIX B 
 
 Action of the New England Congregational Church of Chicago, 
 in relation to certain memorial stones, procured by the agency and 
 at the expense of E. W. Blatchford, Esq., a member and officer of 
 the Church, one being from Scrooby Manor in England, the residence 
 of Elder Brewster and the first place of meeting of the Church which 
 afterwards assembled under Robinson at Leyden, and which em- 
 barked at Delft Haven for America — another being from the pave- 
 ment of the church in Delft Haven near the place of their embarkation, 
 in which church the Rev. M. Cohen Stuart, of Rotterdam , by whose 
 agency the stone was procured, supposes them to have assembled 
 for the last time before leaving Holland, and a third being a frag- 
 ment of the rock at Plymouth in Massachusetts, upon which they 
 landed, a gift from the trustees of the Pilgrim Monument Association. 
 
 Resolved, that the thanks of the Church are hereby given to our 
 brother. Deacon E. W. Blatchford, for the beautiful conception of 
 placing within the walls of the New England Church memorials of 
 the three chief epochs in the history of our Pilgrim Fathers, and for 
 his unwearied efforts in procuring the same. 
 
 Resolved, that the thanks of the Church are due to Richard 
 Monckton Milnes, Baron Houghton, the proprietor of Scrooby 
 Manor, and by whom the stone from Scrooby Manor was presented, 
 and to C. H. Lowther, Esq., for his generous efforts in procuring for us 
 this valuable and well attested rehc from the spot made sacred by 
 the earliest worship and organization of the Pilgrim Church. 
 
 Resolved, that the thanks of this Church are likewise due to the 
 Rev. M. Cohen Stuart, of Rotterdam, and to the consistory of the 
 Church in Delft Haven, for the very suggestive slab bearing date, 
 "1595" taken from the pavement which may have been pressed by 
 the feet of the Pilgrims in the agony of their leave-taking and amid 
 the solemnities of then: last acts of united worship. 
 
 Resolved, that the thanks of this Church are also due to T. Gordon, 
 Esq., of Plymouth, Mass., and to the Board of Trustees of the 
 70 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 71 
 
 Pilgrim Monument Association for the portion of that ever-memorable 
 rock which received the pressure of the first anxious yet joyous steps 
 of our revered fathers upon these shores. 
 
 Resolved, that the building committee be hereby requested to 
 place these memorial stones in appropriate niches, and with suitable 
 inscription in the walls of the Church. 
 
 Resolved, that Deacon Blatchford be requested to select a stone 
 from the material now being used in the erection of our church 
 edifice, and having placed a suitable inscription upon the same, to 
 forward it to the consistory of the Church in Delft Haven, to take 
 the place in the pavement made vacant by their gift to us, if it shall 
 please them to use it. 
 
 Resolved, that the clerk of the Church be requested to forward 
 a copy of this action, certified by the signatures of the pastor and 
 deacons to Baron Haughton, to C. H. Lowther, Esq., to the Rev. 
 M. Cohen Stuart, and to T. Gordon, Esq., with the request that it 
 may be brought to the notice of each of the persons herein mentioned. 
 
 (Signed) Lyman Baird, 
 
 Clerk pro tern. 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 A GIFT TO THE NEW ENGLAND CHURCH, BY HON. 
 WILLIAM H. BRADLEY 
 
 March i, 1882 
 
 It was a cherished and often expressed wish of my dear daughter 
 before her death to place in the New England Church a baptismal 
 font in memory of her two little boys. This wish her husband has 
 been taking steps to fulfill. 
 
 While in England last summer I chanced to make the acquaint- 
 ance of Lady Lowther, the wife of Sir Charles Lowther, Bart., of 
 Wilton Castle, Yorkshire. A son of Sir Charles and Lady Lowther, 
 the Right Honorable James Lowther, was the Chief Secretary for 
 Ireland under the administration of Lord Beaconsfield, having 
 represented the old city of York in ParUament for fifteen years, and 
 has been recently returned to Parliament from North Lincolnshire. 
 While enjoying their hospitaUty it occurred to me that Rev. Dr. 
 Holbrook, years ago, had mentioned this lady as saying to him that 
 the baptismal font in the old church at Scrooby had been displaced 
 to make room for one of more modern size and form, and he thought 
 it could be secured for the New England Church. It struck me 
 that if this should still be possible, this old font, from the associations 
 connected with it, would be a more precious memorial gift for both 
 mother and sons than any new one could be. I spoke to Lady 
 Lowther explaining the circumstances and expressing the wish, if 
 possible, to secure the font. To this she heartily consented. But 
 to make the matter sure and regular in form, she first consulted 
 Lord Houghton, the proprietor of the estate, and also the warden of 
 the church. Just before leaving England I received a very kind note 
 from Lady Lowther, informing me that the necessary formalities 
 had been concluded, and that the font had started on its way. It 
 suffered somewhat from the roughness of the voyage, but has now 
 been restored, fitted with a new base and cover, and placed in the 
 New England Church, this city. 
 
 72 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 73 
 
 HISTORY OF THE RELIC 
 
 To the antiquarian, the chief interest of the font will be found 
 in its great age and its history. These can only be traced through 
 its connection with the village, manor house, and church of Scrooby. 
 In those earher and more lawless times, when Scrooby had its first 
 beginnings, the homes of the barons and the higher dignitaries of 
 both Church and State were built for defense as well as residence. 
 Around each such fortified place a village or hamlet soon grew up, 
 consisting of the homes of the poorer classes, who in times of danger, 
 fled to the great house for safety, and assisted in its defense. Such, 
 in all probabiUty, was the origin of the Uttle town of Scrooby. It 
 was gathered about the fortified palace of one of the first archbishops 
 of York. For the earliest authentic mention of the place, we go 
 back to the days of William the Conqueror. 
 
 On Christmas Day, more than eight hundred years ago, in A. D. 
 1066, Wilham the Conqueror was crowned, in Westminster Abbey, 
 king of England. His Norman followers eagerly demanded the 
 lands, abbeys, churches, and treasure of England as their rightful 
 spoil and recompense for services rendered. To ascertain the value 
 and amount of land in his new kingdom, the Conqueror ordered a 
 book to be made containing a description and valuation of every 
 estate or manor throughout all England, excepting two counties 
 made desolate by war. This book, called the " Doomsday Book " is 
 still extant; in it Scrooby is described as belonging to the "See of 
 York." It was situated 150 miles north of London, on what was 
 called the great North Road, which led from London to York, and 
 on to Berwick on the borders of Scotland. It seems to have been a 
 place of note and importance, for in the year 1503 Margaret, daughter 
 of Henry VII., and grandmother of the unfortunate Mary Queen of 
 Scots, when on her way to become the bride of James IV. and Queen of 
 Scotland, was entertained in the palace of Scrooby. To this place 
 in his " See of York," Cardinal Wolsey retired when banished from 
 the court of Henry VIII. in 1528. Twelve years later, in 1541, 
 Henry VIII. himself lodged here. Some other bishop must have re- 
 ceived the king, as Wolsey was dead. 
 
 The same year Leyland wirites; "In the mean townlet of Scrooby 
 I marked two things. First, the church, not very big, but very well 
 
74 New England Church 
 
 builded of square polished stones. The second was a great manor- 
 place, standing within a moat and belonging to the Archbishop of 
 York, builded in two courts, whereof the first is very ample, and all 
 builded of timber save the front of the hall — that is of brick, to the 
 which one ascends by steps of stone. The inner court building as 
 far as I marked, was of timber, and w^as not in compass, past the 
 fourth of the outer court." 
 
 Here the moat and the timber remind us of the blockhouses 
 built in the times of our Indian wars, clearly suggest defense. The 
 little church of polished stones, in which the font occupied an honor- 
 able place, was a fitting house of worship for the archbishop, his 
 court, and his distinguished guests. 
 
 Forty years later, in 1582, Queen Elizabeth, but for the spirited 
 protest of Archbishop Sandys, would have presented Scrooby to her 
 favorite, the Earl of Leicester. "The loss to the See," writes the 
 archbishop, "would be ;^6o,ooo at least; too much, Most Gracious 
 Sovereign, too much to pull from a bishopric." 
 
 He kept the estate, but the very next year he gave it to his son. 
 Sir Samuel Sandys, and it never after was restored to the bishopric 
 of York. Sir Samuel Sandys seems to have resided here for about 
 ten years, monuments to his family of that date still remaining in 
 the church. He then leased the manor house with its surroundings 
 to Mr. William Brewster. 
 
 ELDER BREWSTER 
 
 This William Brewster, afterwards chosen elder of the first 
 church of our order, formed in Scrooby Manor House, and justly 
 named "Chief of the Pilgrims" was then about thirty years of age. 
 His life had been an eventful one. Having been instructed, we are 
 told, in Latin and Greek he had been sent to school at Cambridge. 
 Afterwards he entered the service of Mr. Davidson, Secretary of 
 State in the time of Queen EUzabeth. The Secretary, finding him 
 to be "faithful, wise, and discreet, trusted him," it is said, " above all 
 others," "treated him as a son," and took him with him "when sent 
 on an embassy to Holland." Returning to England he was received 
 with special honor, and continued for some years at the court, in 
 the service of the secretary. In 1587, Mary of Scotland was exe- 
 cuted. Ehzabeth, to shield herself from blame, affected great 
 
Fiftieth Anniversary 75 
 
 indignation against Davidson for laying the death warrant she had 
 signed before the privy council. He was arrested and committed to 
 the Tower. Brewster remained for a while near and was often with 
 his fallen friend and chief, probably until his release from the Tower. 
 
 THE MANOR HOUSE 
 
 The next we know of his history he was married, leased the 
 manor house and settled down at Scrooby. The spirit of the 
 Reformation was awake in the land. Old religious forms were pass- 
 ing away, and men were earnestly inquiring for a better way. A 
 few earnest clergymen were obtained, largely through Mr. Brewster's 
 influence, for Scrooby and a few neighboring villages. Under their 
 guidance the people crowded the parish churches, and often gathered 
 at the manor house for prayer and the reading of God's word. 
 
 The Christian world had not yet learned to recognize the duty 
 of toleration for all reUgious beliefs. We know the story how 
 their ministers were silenced, their conference meetings broken up 
 and forbidden, fines imposed, imprisonment suffered, and they 
 themselves obliged by persecutions and fears of worse to come, to 
 fly to Holland for freedom and safety, and finally to seek a refuge in 
 the New World. Just before their flight, they met in the manor 
 house and there formed a separate and independent church. They 
 selected Mr. Brewster to be their elder, an office which he held 
 through all his wanderings, until in his eighty-fourth year, having 
 seen the Church of his love and choice securely planted in the 
 New World, he died in Plymouth, surrounded by his children, and 
 mourned by all his people whom he had so faithfully loved and 
 served. 
 
 SCROOBY AND THE FIRST PILGRIM CHURCH 
 
 Since many of the members of that First Pilgrim Church were 
 from Scrooby, and worshiped in its church, notwithstanding the 
 loss of the early parish register, there is no reason to doubt that 
 numbers of them were baptised at this font, and that WilUam and 
 Mary Brewster, whose five children were all born in the manor 
 house, brought them to this font for baptism. 
 
 Some time after Brewster's occupancy, the historian, Hunter, 
 says: "The manor house was at length gradually neglected and 
 
76 New England Church 
 
 finally suffered to go to decay. One hundred years later the house 
 had nearly fallen to the ground. In 1813 the house had disappeared, 
 but the church remained. In 1853 a tourist, after an enthusiastic 
 description of the fertiUty and the quiet beauty of the surrounding 
 country, speaks of the village of Scrooby, " marked out by its grace- 
 fully constructed church, rising above the green level with its gray, 
 sky-pointing spire." He mentions, too, "the moat, some fragments 
 of richly carved work, sole rehcs of the great manor house of the 
 bishops." 
 
 (Signed) William H. Bradley. 
 
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